At a time when rural hospitals have been closing in Alabama, the latest being RMC Jacksonville at the end of June, a lease agreement between a subsidiary of Floyd Healthcare Management and the Cherokee County Health Care Authority will mean that Cherokee Medical Center will continue operations for years to come. 

The newly renamed Floyd Cherokee Medical Center has completed the first phase of the transition and is entering the second phase “We start looking at operations at the center of operating procedures and we start going through every single scenario; rewriting our SOPs and many other things like Clinical Operations that are going to be reviewed and making sure that they are standardized with Floyd in what we do. Our standard of care is very high. That’s what we are going to be doing in the next 30 days specifically. After that we will continue to look at how we can serve Cherokee, and how we can bring everyone in the community together.”  David Early, Vice President of Support Services and Operations at Floyd Medical Center, who was a guest on Monday’s Hometown Headlines Radio Edition with John Druckenmiller.

He said Floyd wants to build on the relationship it already has with the residents of Cherokee County “We have a strong base that we serve with our Urgent Care and Primary Care, and also we have many people that travel across the state line. We also want to, locally, establish a presence at Floyd Cherokee Medical Center where people feel comfortable to come in, have services, come to the ER, understand that they are going to get great health care. It will build to triage if they need to go somewhere else, certainly they will, but we want to build a respect to have them come in locally.” Early said there are no plans at this time to construct a new facility like Floyd did when it assumed operations of Polk Medical Center.

He said the current hospital building has been well-maintained and is in good physical condition.

Early added there is a great base there to stay, improve and move forward at the current location.

WRGA/www.wrgarome.com)

David Early

Vice President of Support Services and Operations

Mr. Early was promoted to Vice President of Support Services and Operations in 2018. He joined the executive team as Vice President of Support Services in 2015. He joined Floyd in 2004 as Project Manager for Floyd’s supply chain. He was named Director of Materials Management in 2005, and in 2011, was promoted to Director of Support Services.

Mr. Early holds a bachelor of science degree in organizational management from Covenant College. He earned his Master of Business Administration degree and Master of Health Administration from Georgia State University.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Fellow of the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management.

He has responsibility for the following Support Services:

• Radiology
  • The Breast Center at Floyd
• Respiratory Therapy
  • Neurodiagnostics
  • Non-Invasive Vascular Lab
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation
  • Sleep Lab
• Support Services
  • Biomedical Services
  • Central Supply
  • Couriers
  • Environmental Services
  • Food and Nutritional Services
  • Mailroom
  • Materials Management
  • Plant Facilities
  • Purchasing
  • Security and Parking
  • Switchboard

Mr. Early is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Distributive Cooperative, Inc., and a member of the Seven Hills Rotary Club. He previously served as a Board Member and President of the Georgia Society for Healthcare Materials Management and chairman of the Volunteer Hospitals of America Supply Chain Leaders Council.