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Celebrating 50 years of caring
McCOOK, Neb. - Community Hospital in McCook celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a Crazy Days community event that drew over 300 attendees yesterday. The event occurred at the Norris Alley Courtyard, where the hospital's current President and CEO, Troy Bruntz, expressed gratitude for the community's support.
Over 300 people filled the Norris Alley Courtyard adjacent to the Keystone Building in downtown McCook on Thursday afternoon and evening to celebrate Community Hospital's 50th Anniversary.
"It hit me in the few days before the community celebration; it is a big deal," said current Hospital President and CEO Troy Bruntz before the event.
Bruntz explained that while the hospital staff is celebrating its special 50th Anniversary all year, the event at Norris Alley was the one event the hospital hosted for the community to join in on the celebration. He said they booked a band and hoped for a big turnout.
"I've been telling everybody to please come out, but then you are like, are they going to come? Are they going to come?" he said. "But then in the last few days, Jim Ulrich, the CEO before me, said he was coming, and then Gary Bieganski, the CEO before him, he's on his way down, and between the three of us, we are 46 of those 50-years, so that is kind of neat."
The hospital had an excellent crowd for last night's event, beautiful weather, and a near-perfect setting at Norris Alley.
Bruntz talked about the 50th anniversary to the crowd before the band took the stage. He introduced former CEOs Bieganski and Ulrich to the audience, and they received an ovation. He recognized a former CFO and briefly spoke about the hospital's history.
He said that while the hospital campus looks different, many things have stayed the same since the hospital opened. "The amount of caring that goes on by the staff and providers at the hospital each and every day and every year, that hasn't changed," he said. "We are in a community where you are treating your friends, family, your neighbors and the dedication of the staff in a rural community like ours is just amazing."
He pointed out that rural hospitals don't have Cardiologists and Neurologists on staff and are hours away. It creates challenges for nursing and hospital providers. However, Bruntz said, the nurses and the doctors deal with the challenges daily and do an amazing job for their patients.
Bieganski, who served as CEO for almost 30-years from 1978 to Dec 31, 2006, said the long standing success of the Community Hospital comes down to the people working there.
"I think it was the dedication of the medical staff and the hospital staff that have been here to make sure they have provided top quality care in everything that we can do and if it wasn't a service we provided, we helped get the patients to the right place for that specialty service," he explained. "Either by bringing specialists in or helping them get to where they needed to be, so they had a continual quality of care all the way through."
Looking forward to the next 50 years, Bruntz says, the hospital has a lot to work on. Currently, he said, just like many other businesses, staffing is a big concern. "When you are in a community that is as aged as ours and is aging as fast as ours is, and our working ages are dwindling by the day, how can you service all the elderly that we are going to have five to ten years from now,' he said. "We are doing everything we can, trying to invest in ways to get people trained here so they can at least experience why this is a great community. Not everyone is going to stay, but if we can convince a portion of those people that this might be a good place to start their career when they graduate, then we are going to win."
In addition, Bruntz said the hospital plans some building projects over the next five years, including work on the emergency room facilities.