Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) acquired Mission Health and Angel Medical Center over three years ago. In the time since, there have been concerns about lost personnel and declining services. Many have lost confidence in HCA, but new CEO Clint Kendall intends to earn people’s trust back.
Kendall is a native of Asheville and earned his Bachelor of Science in nursing from Western Carolina University. He most recently served as CEO of Andalusia Health, a 113-bed facility in the LifePoint Healthcare system in Alabama. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kendall and his wife felt a calling to return home to North Carolina to be closer to family, and he found an exciting opportunity to do so when former Angel CEO Karen Gorby retired earlier this year.
“I love Western North Carolina,” Kendall said. “This is my home.”
COVID-19 is still very much a factor in Macon County and beyond. As of Tuesday morning, the six Mission Health hospitals in the region had 154 patients with COVID-19 – about as many as they’ve ever had at once – and hospitals all over the country are struggling to find room for patients. Aside from space concerns, Kendall is also worried by a high ratio of people forgoing necessary hospital visits until they’re extremely ill because they’re afraid to catch the virus in a hospital. He encourages anyone who thinks they need medical attention to seek help in a timely manner, for their sake and his staff’s.
“Don’t give up on yearly exams and don’t give up on your regular doctor visits,” Kendall said. “People are coming in sick, and it gets harder to take care of them the longer they wait.”
Kendall’s approach to the pandemic is the same as his approach to running the hospital in general – to prioritize community engagement. Angel Medical Center is making a point to provide Macon County Public Health with important resources like vaccines and monoclonal antibodies so that as many people as need them can have easier access to them. In a wider sense, Kendall wants to make the hospital a more visible part of the community by working alongside organizations like churches and civic groups to promote helpful services. They’re already working with sports programs at Franklin High School to provide athletic trainers, and last week, they sent representatives to the Smoky Mountains Veteran Stand Down event.
“Healthcare is always everchanging,” Kendall said. “With COVID-19, it’s more important than ever for us to be active with our community… we’re always reexamining the needs of our area.”
As far as where those needs lie, Kendall said there are a lot of factors to weigh. For example, there’s been popular demand for some time to restore labor and delivery services to Franklin, but Kendall said it’s unlikely for the hospital to offer these services any time soon because it doesn’t match local demographics. Macon County has a smaller than average working-age population and, therefore, may have fewer potential expecting parents. There may be a chicken-or-the-egg argument to be had on that front, but Kendall said the hospital is prioritizing hiring professionals who can meet the needs of most local residents, such as orthopedists and general surgeons.
Hiring in general is a major issue for Angel Medical Center, as with most hospitals in the midst of the pandemic. Kendall said the job has gotten harder because of COVID-19, making recruitment and retention more difficult. HCA has some resources to address the issue, including a paid certified nursing assistant training program that interested Franklin residents can participate in at the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital. However, Kendall said the biggest hurdles to overcome are outside of the company’s control. Housing remains a precious commodity in Macon County, and Angel Medical Center lost at least one prospective nurse who wanted the job but couldn’t find anywhere to live. There’s also an unavoidable mental toll that comes from a healthcare profession, especially now.
“It’s a battlefield,” Kendall said. “Our employees do everything that they can for our patients… I hate the word ‘heroes,’ but that’s the word that fits best. They’re my heroes every day.”
Kendall’s main strategy for finding new employees and keeping old ones is to make Angel Medical Center a better place to work. The biggest resource in that mission is the new Angel Medical Center, a $68 million, 82,500-square foot facility being built at One Center Court off Highway 64. The building is on schedule to be finished by June 2022 and start accepting patients three months later in September. Plans for the current hospital building are still in the works.
The new 30-bed facility will include three operating rooms, an endoscopy unit, a 17-bed emergency room and three dedicated behavioral health beds. Kendall said the hospital will be all state-of-the-art and is designed with the needs of both patients and practitioners in mind. He expects that a lot more people will want to work in healthcare in Macon County in the next few years.
“We are economic growth,” Kendall said of Angel Medical Center. “We are part of what draws people to this area.”
In what little time he’s had in town so far, Kendall has already grown attached to the hospital staff and the surrounding community. He’s looking forward to using the resources available to his position to help both grow over the next few years.
“Our healthcare team here is so dedicated to our community. You can tell that they really love Franklin,” Kendall said. “It’s good to be back.”