Sunday, April 24, 2005

We Want Back Our Hospital!

Their hospital closed in the late 60s and in most towns it would have stayed closed. People would have moved on, chalking it up to a typical occurrence in rural towns. In my travels I’ve yet to see where someone has reopened something as complex as a hospital. That was, until last week.

Lovington and nearby Tatum resolved to reopen their hospital, creating a new hospital district. Today the Nor-Lea General Hospital is a thriving entity in Lovington, NM, employing 180. It recently completed a $7 million expansion, draws patients from a 90 mile radius and does 95% of its revenue as an outpatient facility.

Its CEO, David Shaw, who moved to Lovington 5 years ago, was selected as Lovington’s Citizen of the Year at the event I spoke at. He is dynamically expanding the vision of the hospital and also of the community.

The people of Lovington and Tatum showed a real “Can Do” spirit in not giving up on their closed hospital. It is often the real key to success of successful towns compared to others.

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