Cain welcomed as new CEO at hospital

December 7, 2006

By BEN GARRETT
Independent Herald Editor

Scott County Hospital’s staff and the community was to have welcomed the hospital’s new CEO in a reception Tuesday afternoon, after the Independent Herald’s press deadline.

Attentus Healthcare recently named Mark Cain, formerly the CEO at White County Community Hospital in Sparta, as the new CEO at Scott County Hospital. After his first week on the job, Cain sat down with the Independent Herald Friday morning to discuss his appointment to the position and the future of the local facility.

In a nutshell, Cain said that he does not plan to be a CEO who is “here today, gone tomorrow,” as has been the recent trend of CEOs at the hospital. He is committed to the local facility, he said, and is interested in seeing it grow.

“I had this same conversation when I went to Sparta, where they had something like seven CEOs in five years,” Cain said. “We were there for six and a half years. We went there because it was a great community, a great place to raise our kids, close to family and the hospital wanted to grow and become better. There’s nothing different about Oneida. It’s a great place to raise our kids, it’s close to family, and the hospital has even more potential to grow and be better. This is a great opportunity.”

Cain, who is originally from near Chattanooga, finished graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and served a residency at Richland Memorial Hospital in South Carolina. He has worked in various locations since that time, but has worked in the Middle Tennessee area for the past 12 years. He and his wife, Melissa, have four children, ranging in age from five to 15. All are enrolled in the Oneida Elementary and Middle schools, where they are active in sports.

While Cain said that the obvious next step for the hospital is a new facility, the state of healthcare for the community is strong in the meantime.

“Healthcare is really fairly simple,” he said. “It starts with a strong, quality medical staff, which this community has. The hospital has to provide a compassionate, caring environment, and I believe we do that, too. The job that’s in front of us is to continue putting quality physicians in the community to continue to provide compassionate care to people who come here, with our ultimate goal of getting this new hospital built so we can expand services and do a better job than we’ve ever done providing the needs of our community.”
As for the future of the hospital?

“The future of the hospital at the moment resides up the street in a place where we’ll create the new hospital,” Cain said.

“(But) despite all the changes that are going on in what we do, it all boils down to taking care of friends and family,” he added. “In a small town, that’s what you’re doing, and we’ll continue to do that. We look forward to the challenge of providing excellent care in this community and making sure that people feel that we care about them and that they’re better when they leave. It’s as simple as that. As long as we do that, we’ll get our new hospital built, we’ll continue to provide new services, and life will be good.”

The next step towards the new facility, Cain said, is obtaining a certificate of need from the state. A hearing in the matter is set for January 24. That certificate of need, once obtained, will be good for two years, and construction of the facility will begin within that time frame, he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, the sooner (construction starts) the better,” Cain said. “But our first job is to get past that first hurdle, and then we’ll move on from there.”

Cain said that in the meantime, he’ll work with Scott County and the Town of Oneida on matters concerning the hospital.

“I’ve met several of those folks, and they’re good people trying to do the right thing for the county,” he said. “(County Mayor) Rick Keeton and (Oneida Mayor) Jack Lay have already talked with me on several occasions and clearly want what’s best for the community. It’s great to have a good relationship with those guys this early.”

Cain said he cannot control what has happened at Scott County Hospital in the past, but is interested in the current and future states of healthcare at the hospital.

“While I do care, I can’t do anything about what happened 10 years, five years or even a year ago,” he said. “But it is very clear to me, having been in many hospitals over the years, that this hospital provides very, very good care. In whatever political situation or personal situation there was years ago, this is a quality healthcare facility with a quality healthcare staff. This community has an outstanding healthcare partner, and we should embrace each other. Just because something happened 15 years ago does not mean you ought to go somewhere else for healthcare. The community needs to support the hospital and the hospital needs to support the community.”

Cain said that the hospital should be expected to play an active role in the community.

“I don’t expect for people to have to come up here on the hill all the time and come to us, and we just sit up here and accept that,” he said. “As a hospital, we’re going to be involved in the community and we will put back into the community as much as we can. It’s a two-way street. I recognize that and embrace that.”

Cain also addressed several areas of negative perception by the community, including the hospital’s emergency department and the state of equipment and diagnostic tools at the hospital.

Specifically, Cain pointed out that while many have a negative perception of the wait time at the hospital’s emergency room — that is, the amount of time it takes from the time one signs in until they are discharged — the local wait time is actually better than the national average.

“In the month of November, our emergency department saw 1,109 patients,” Cain said. “The average wait time was two hours and 19 minutes. In the bulk of hospitals in our country, you wouldn’t even be in to see a doctor in two hours and 19 minutes. The truth is, this hospital is doing a pretty impressive job of providing emergency department care. To be at two hours and 20 minutes is outstanding, and it has been recognized as such.”

Cain said that the emergency department “will be a major focus — and I emphasize major — on our new hospital.”

Scott County Hospital Human Resources Director Charles Sexton said that his new boss will be a CEO who is dedicated to the hospital.

“What I want people to see is his heart,” Sexton said. “He could have went anywhere. He didn’t have to come here. I think they chose to come to this community for a lot of reasons other than just him being CEO. On the other side, he’s a strong leader. If we aren’t what we need to be, he’s going to make sure that we get there. This guy was selected to take us to the next level, and this is a guy that the hospital was happy to have here.”

The bottom line for choosing Scott County, Cain said, was the makeup of the community.

“Frankly, I like walking into a restaurant and knowing almost everybody there,” he said. “I like going to Kiwanis and you’ve been with those same people on Sunday or on the baseball field during the week. That kind of closeness is what community really is about. If I wanted to be in the big city, I could go do that, but I have no interest in that.”

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