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Congressman Madison Cawthorn pays a visits St. Luke’s

 

Eager to learn about challenges facing rural communities in securing good healthcare, Congressman Madison Cawthorn visits St. Luke’s Hospital.

A Zoom meeting took place earlier this week to discuss statewide vaccine distribution. In addition to Congressman Madison Cawthorn, the conference call included Polk County Commissioners and Michelle Fortune, CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital. The call led to an invitation to visit St. Luke’s. The Congressman jumped on the invite and visited the hospital on Thursday, January 28.

As we learned from the Congressman, healthcare reform is at the top of his list of things to accomplish in Washington, DC. He is eager to learn about the challenges that rural communities face in securing good healthcare. While at St. Luke’s, Rep. Cawthorn met with several front-line doctors, nurses and providers in every department.

Rep. Cawthorne heard about challenges that critical access hospitals face in competing against corporate conglomerates. And as a nonprofit, community-owned hospital, he also learned about the challenges St. Luke’s faces in raising funds to keep the hospital on the leading edge of healthcare and to update an aging facility.

We found Rep. Cawthorn to be genuinely interested in our plight. He was empathetic and sincerely focused on each person that he met. The hospital teammates who met the Congressman were all impressed by his visit, concern and willingness to help.

Submitted by Michelle Fortune