The newly appointed CEO of the Pineville Hospital was introduced at Monday night’s Pineville City Council meeting. Terry Nichols was introduced by Pineville Mayor Scott Madon as he said that he and Nichols have had several productive meetings together.

“I am the interim CEO of the hospital, and the organization I work for is Rural Hospital Group out of Kansas City,” said Nichols. “Our forte is dealing with rural hospitals and rural hospitals that are in trouble and you all certainly fit that need.”

Nichols explained that what he and his company do is come in and take a look at the hospital to see how the operations are run, take a look at the business financially, see what kinds of services the hospital offers and see if there is a way that he and the company can help.

“There’s a number of ways we can help. One thing is to just come in and manage it and do a turnaround plan to keep managing it, or we go away and they bring in their own” he explained. “Our group is in other hospitals that are doing very well and offering services to their communities that they weren’t prior to us stepping in to help.”

He said their concern is what benefits the community.

“You are probably wondering how does this fit into the mix, and honestly I can’t tell you because we have more questions that we need answered,” he said. “The way we look at it is what doesn’t benefit us will benefit your community and most importantly your hospital. There’s a case to be made for keeping it not-for-profit. You qualify for more funds from the government and you may need those. There’s a case for leasing it where you keep the ownership as a not-for-profit. We don’t know, we will know within the next 60 days.”

He continued to explain that the main concern is the hospital and their growth in the future.

“One thing is for sure, you all built a very fine hospital building, and you all have done a lot of things to bring that up to speed that no longer function in today’s health care market,” he said.

He continued to explain things they plan to do moving forward, and one of those things includes a plan to build a new building.