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New President & Chief Nursing Officer
Written By: Jenny King | Issue: 2017/06 - June
Highlands-Cashiers Hospital has a new president and chief nursing officer.
Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Medland, PhD, RN, came to Western North Carolina via metropolitan Chicago and has no question that this is “God’s country.”
With this being the smallest hospital she’s served, she is impressed with the sense of community and the level of personal care she’s witnessed over the last month. She has been following each and every department and has been amazed by what she has seen.
Medland feels that here she has found, “Visionary leadership, wickedly smart folks, and an amazingly talented group of people who have so committed themselves to caring for and serving others. That doesn’t exist everywhere in our nation.”
Her curriculum vitae is impressive, yet she sees herself as a caregiver first and administrator second. Her career has developed in ways she never would have expected, but her passion remains patient care and providing the absolute best environment for patients and their families. Thanks to the support of Mission Health, she feels that care and services at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital is well-complemented by top-notch, tertiary level care just an hour and a half away down the mountain.
Healthcare in Highlands-Cashiers and the surrounding areas is not the hospital alone, it is a community of caregivers.
“You have the hospital, the Eckerd Living Center and the physician practices,” Medland says. “What a great opportunity to integrate the care and services to meet the needs of the larger community. The goal is not to create a full-service tertiary facility, but as a Critical Access Hospital, to provide critical access during times of need. Emergency services, strong primary care and diagnostics are essential.”
With the addition of the renovated Emergency Department, Medland feels that the new ED at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital can now offer a facility comparable to those of any larger hospital. She looks forward to bringing together members of the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital team and community members to learn more about what needs to be done to continue to improve our hospital. For more information on how you can be a part of that discussion, visit hchospital.org.
