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An Honor To Serve
Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: April 2023
Jerry Hermanson steps away from a record of sterling service to The Community Care Clinic of Highlands-Cashiers.
This month marks the retirement of The Community Care Clinic of Highlands-Cashiers’ Executive Director Jerry Hermanson, a post he’s held for the last 17 years.
“I started two weeks before the first patient was seen on December 8, 2005,” he says.
With his characteristic modesty, Hermanson is quick to deflect our attempts to spotlight himself in this story.
“With the help of many volunteers and other staff we have treated over 6,000 patients providing over 11,000 patient visits,” he says. “With the generous financial support of members of our community, we have been able to provide many services needed by the low income, uninsured in our area. During the more than 17 years I’ve been here, I’ve had the opportunity to serve on the Board of the NC Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (11 years) and am currently the Chairman of the Macon County Board of Health.”
In a way, his arrival at the Community Care Clinic seems predestined.
“I’ve been in health care management for 50 years,” he says. “Following my graduation from the MBA program in hospital administration at the University of Florida, my first administrative position was at Imperial Point Hospital, a 150-bed, short term, acute care community hospital which had recently opened in the North end of Fort Lauderdale. I spent five years there getting it to profitability and establishing it as an important hospital in a very crowded and competitive market. From there I transferred to the district’s largest hospital, Broward General Medical Center in down town Fort Lauderdale. This 744 bed hospital offered most services of a large major medical center and provided more services than any other hospital in the county.”
But his job here on the Plateau has proved to be one of the most meaningful.
“One of the most rewarding part of being associated with the clinic is that I can’t go anywhere in Macon and Jackson counties without seeing a friend, whether they are a clinic patient or clinic volunteer. What an honor it’s been to serve at the clinic.
