HCH CEO awarded for his efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic
Photo by Christopher Smith/Staff Mission Health and HCA Healthcare North Carolina Division Public and Media Relations director Nancy Lindell presents Highlands-Cashiers Hospital CEO Tom Neal with his medallion.
Due to Highlands-Cashiers Hospital’s CEO Tom Neal’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Carolina Hospital Association honored Neal with their Healthcare Hero Award.
“The North Carolina Healthcare Association knows how important it is, especially during these unprecedented times, to show appreciation for exceptional efforts made by frontline workers to colleagues, patients or the community,” NCHA President Stephen Lawler wrote Neal in a letter. “We honor you with a Healthcare Hero medallion, as a gratitude for your exemplary service. Thank you for all you do to ensure exceptional care for patients and others in your hospital and community.”
Neal was nominated by Mission Health and HCA Healthcare North Carolina Division Public and Media Relations director Nancy Lindell.
“Tom Neal has an exemplary team at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital ho not only provide exceptional care in the hospital, but also at the on-sight assisted living facility, Eckerd Living Center,” Lindell wrote in her nomination. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping his patients, staff and residents of ELC safe was of primary importance. When the vaccine arrived, Tom went above and beyond his role at the hospital to help coordinate community vaccine clinics in Highlands. Mission Health donated the vaccine supply and members of the hospital staff, with Tom taking the lead, volunteered at these events to ensure the members of the Highlands-Cashiers community had easy access to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Tom should be commended for his leadership at the hospital and in his community, helping to keep everyone safe and healthy.”
Last Friday, Lindell and members of the HCH staff surprised Neal with the Healthcare Hero medallion.
“Receiving this award is really humbling,” Neal said. “I’m just really happy to be here and serve this community and hospital and to be recognized for, what I think, is just doing my job. Everything here is about everyone else at this hospital that’s helped make this happen. We have great people here and that’s what makes the difference, both in the hospital and the community. I couldn’t be prouder to be here.”
Neal has been with HCH for about a year and a half and said that the COVID pandemic was a challenge for everyone, but he looks forward to serving the community in other ways.
“Our focus was trying to keep our patients and our staff safe,” Neal said. “I think that is one of the things I am most proud of. The vaccine initiative is one of those things we look at and say we are very proud of, but it was also just super fun. We helped so many people and everybody was thankful and the community spirit that came out of it, I couldn’t be prouder of it. There probably won’t be another experience in my life where I look back and say wow. I am looking forward to coming out of COVID, because there are other things that we want to do here. The opportunity is here to do great things. We’ve had some good successes here, for example we just restarted our operating rooms for the first time in seven years and we now have better equipment to better serve our community. We are looking forward to our new doctors starting over in Cashiers. So, those are all things that I would point to, and I am really looking forward to better serve our community.”
- By Christopher Smith