After just 13 months on the job, the president and chief executive officer of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was abruptly fired Monday morning for reasons that have not been disclosed.

In a press release emailed to the Gazette, hospital board chairman Tim Sweet said Joe Woodin was “stepping down” from his role and that former president and chief executive officer Timothy Walsh would return as interim CEO. The release gave no reason or time frame for Mr. Woodin’s departure.

But speaking to the Gazette by telephone, Mr. Woodin said he had been fired.

“I just got summarily fired at 8 a.m. with no notice and no discussion of anything I’ve done wrong — by the board chairman [Timothy Sweet],” Mr. Woodin said.

Reached by phone, Mr. Sweet had little comment. “He is stepping down from his position. I would really like to stay with the press release,” Mr. Sweet said. He did say that Mr. Woodin’s departure is the result of a board decision although he could not say if there had been a vote.

“It was a decision of the board — I would rather not get into the process right now,” he said.

The press release, signed by Mr. Sweet, noted that Mr. Woodin had “brought many fresh ideas and changes” to the hospital since his arrival. “We extend our thanks to Joe for his dedication and hard work in our behalf and wish him fair winds and all the best wherever his next steps may lead,” the press release said.

But Mr. Woodin, a longtime rural hospital executive from Vermont who was hired last year to take the helm at the Island’s only hospital after a nationwide search, did not mince words.

He said he was asked without warning on Monday by Mr. Sweet to sign an agreement saying he was resigning for personal reasons — and he refused.

“I’m not resigning. I love this job. I just bought a house,” Mr. Woodin said.

“This is the worst of Island politics and this is between the board chairman and me,” Mr. Woodin said. “Apparently I have crossed him, although I have always respected him. I was speechless.”

Mr. Woodin said he was given no reason for the firing. “There have been no performance reviews given to me, no documentation, no phone calls, not a single concern over my performance,” he said.

Mr. Woodin, 56, was named in February 2016 to replace Mr. Walsh, who was retiring after 16 years. He started work last May.

Mr. Woodin came to Martha’s Vineyard from Gifford Medical Center, a critical access hospital in rural central Vermont, where he had been president and CEO since 2000. He also formerly held key positions at Fletcher Allen Health Care, formerly the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont.

Trained as an industrial engineer, he began work in business and manufacturing but early on in his career moved into hospital administration in Vermont, spurred initially by his work in a homeless shelter in Burlington, Vt.

At the time of his appointment, Mr. Sweet, the board chairman who also led the search committee, said Mr. Woodin almost immediately rose to the top of the candidate list. “He quite frankly seemed to be custom made for exactly what we were looking for,” he said.

For his part, Mr. Woodin said at the time his decision to take the Vineyard job was spurred by personal events.

“In life a lot of the things we do are structured and planned and we think through them . . . . and sometimes things happen in life that are dramatically different,” he said. “For me it was the loss of my wife and high school sweetheart that was sort of the calling that I could have easily ignored. But I decided I should probably have the courage.”

Mr. Woodin came under criticism after he announced in February that the hospital would be closing an elderly independent living unit at Windemere because of low residency and deep financial losses.

Last month, Mr. Woodin announced that the hospital had reached agreement with Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to convert a building known as the Red House to a crisis stabilization unit. The plan had been negotiated by Mr. Walsh, but Mr. Woodin put it on temporary hold saying he needed to find suitable space to house the billing department that would be displaced.

In the press release, Mr. Sweet credited Mr. Woodin with conducting a comprehensive facility study outlining the present and future needs on the hospital campus.

“Joe’s training as an industrial engineer came to the fore as he facilitated a collaborative review of the old 1972 hospital building and all the departments delivering care within,” the press release said. “His assessment showed that as MVH has continued to grow and evolve since the opening of our new hospital in 2007, there remains more work to be done to insure that the delivery of primary and specialty care will complement the environment and patient centered care that our new hospital has brought to our acute care. We are committed to continue the important work that Joe began to plan for our future and be the best we can be.”

On Monday Mr. Woodin said: “I am being tossed out. My computer has been shut off and I’m packing up. This is unbelievably unseemly.”