The View Forward

In a few weeks we will usher in 2010, not only a new year--but also a brand new decade. When you work in healthcare as I do, you already have seen the sign posted about the future, “Buckle your seat belt; could be jolts ahead.” I have noted the message but want to be part of the ride and hope many of you will want to jump on board, too.

Here’s why: I believe the next 10 years will be a dynamic and exciting time for healthcare workers in Franklin County, bringing many positive gains for the patient. Just as tectonic plates deep within the earth slide past each other to create vast changes in the landscape, society’s rapidly increasing older population is slipping past younger generations to claim a larger relative presence.

By 2030 it is projected that one-third of all Americans will be 55 and older. Soon one in every five persons will be 65 and older and these aging people will require more healthcare services than at any other time in their lives, even more the case in a rural retirement county like ours.

To care for these many patients adequately, we will need more and more young people (and middle aged folks) to choose to train for human services careers. These trained people will be highly sought and well paid. The future opportunities to achieve a stable and satisfying career in healthcare are almost limitless. Even today, with 10 percent unemployed in our country, Weems is seeking to hire a number of licensed personnel: RNs, respiratory and X-ray technicians, EMTs and paramedics.

We have very desirable communities in Franklin County in which to work and a close, supportive group of colleagues to join at our clinic in Carrabelle and our hospital in Apalachicola. Our clinical alliance with Tallahassee Memorial is helping to bring quality “best practices” and increased services to Weems and its clinic.

Technology will mean better healthcare in the future for the patient in Franklin County, as well. In June, the Governor’s Office announced a Rural Infrastructure Fund grant totaling $1.12 million to help connect nine rural Panhandle hospitals, including Weems, to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH), Sacred Heart in Pensacola, and Bay Medical in Panama City. This is in addition to $9.6 million the federal government already has contributed to this same broadband network project that will connect in ‘real time’ Weems to the large number of specialists at TMH.

Once the digital network is completed, if you are our patient and we need to consult a specialist immediately so that your medical condition can be quickly and dramatically improved, we will be able to do just that with the skilled use of telemetry medicine in the next 10 years.

With two new medical buildings on the horizon in Carrabelle and in Apalachicola because of the passage of a one-cent sales tax increase in 2007, the view I see in Franklin County going forward is dynamic for the healthcare employee and positive for the patient. We invite you to join us. If you have a medical license and wish to pursue opportunities within our system, please contact me or our Human Resources Director Ginny Griner at 653-8853.

Chuck Colvert is the CEO of Weems Memorial Hospital.