Thomas Frist to leave HCA board

Thomas Frist Jr., the sole co-founder of Nashville-based HCA still involved with the company, will resign from its board at the start of the new year, the latest step in a "changing of the guard" at HCA. Company officials confirmed that Frist will turn over his seat on the HCA board to his son, William R. Frist, a principal with a family investment firm, on Jan. 1. That will end the elder Frist's last formal role at the privately held company.