The new Fleming County Hospital Chief Executive Officer Brian Springate is settling in.
Springate began his duties as CEO in June and has spent the last few weeks getting to know the staff and starting a strategic plan to work with FCH's sister hospital, Meadowview Regional Medical Center in Maysville.
"We have this sister facility in Maysville," he said. "It's my goal to create a synergy between the two campuses. We want to offer services that complement one another. At one point, the hospitals may have been rivals, but now we're sisters, and I want our work to reflect that."
Springate said his other goal during his time at the hospital is to become a part of the community.
"I want to be ingrained in the community," he said. "And, I want to know the staff and make sure they know me."
Springate said when he arrived at the hospital, the first thing that caught his attention was how the hospital was high functioning.
"It doesn't surprise me, being a LifePoint Hospital," he said. "But, I guess I wasn't expecting it to be as high functioning. They're doing complex procedures here that I hadn't expected."
According to Springate, he is happy to be a part of Fleming County Hospital for several reasons.
"I sought out Fleming County Hospital," he said. "I found out they needed a CEO, and I went for it. I'm from Kentucky, so this hospital is close to home for me. My wife and I love it here."
Springate graduated from Bryan Station High School in Lexington, before going on to Lexington Community College to get his RN and later to Indiana Wesleyan and Florida Institute of Technology.
"We lived in Florida for three years," he said. "I was the Associate Nursing Officer there."
He most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of Logan Regional Medical Center in Logan, W. Va.
"Having been a nurse, I have a different perspective," he said. "Even though I'm sitting behind this desk, I know what the nurses go through every day out there, and I think that's going to help me with this job."
Springate said he also always knew he wanted to go into the medical field.
"Pretty much everyone in my family went into the medical field," he said. "Two of my kids are in nursing school. It's just a part of our family. The administration part of it just kind of happened, but I did know this was the field I wanted to be in."
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