WORKERS AT HOSPITAL HELP CHOOSE THEIR BOSS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993                   TAG: 9301220073
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium
WORKERS AT HOSPITAL HELP CHOOSE THEIR BOSS
One of the groups that helped choose the new chief executive officer at Wythe County Community Hospital was the people who work there.
Howard N. Ainsley was named to the position by the hospital board last week, after a search both within and outside the Carilion Health System, which has managed the hospital since 1978.
"It was our feeling that Howard was certainly extremely well qualified," said Dr. Judson Booker, a physician who serves on the hospital board and was on the search committee. "I think the majority of people in the hospital felt the same way."
The committee took the unusual step of having the employees interview the top two candidates and give feedback, Booker said.
Ainsley, 38, had been doing the job for more than a month. He had been interim administrator since the resignation of Scott K. Adams, who left Dec. 5 to become CEO at Pullman (Wash.) Memorial Hospital.
And he had been assistant administrator at the 20-year-old 106-bed hospital since 1987.
"We've made good progress over the last couple of years," he said. "We have a big challenge ahead, certainly."
Ainsley wants to see the hospital more involved in community outreach, addressing social ills, helping alleviate their root causes and improving the health status of the community. "The realm of responsibility for the hospital extends beyond primary medical services," he said.
One way the hospital is already reaching out is through a joint project announced last September with the town of Wytheville to build a convention center that will accommodate 200 to 300 people.
The plan will combine a center with expanded town recreational facilities and a wellness and fitness center that would include those facilities. It involves a $3 million renovation of the existing Wytheville Community Center and an addition by the town, which will recoup its investment through a long-term lease of the health and fitness facilities to the hospital.
Ainsley said the project is moving ahead and the hospital is working with the town on programming. It is an innovative project, he said - "the first time, as I understand it, that anything like this has been attempted in the United States."
The idea is to promote fitness to ward off health problems, he said. "And that's where we're headed in health care. A lot of emphasis on prevention - that is key. A lot of businesses are concerned about health-care costs."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB