The new CEO at HCA Florida Capital Hospital is no stranger to that facility, or to Tallahassee. It's a happy homecoming for Dale Neely.
Neely had served as the local hospital's chief operating officer from 2007 to 2012. He says he fell in love with the area right from the start.
"The very first time I visited Tallahassee was when I interviewed for the chief operating office job here at what was Capital Regional at the time. And when I came into the city, I was coming from the north side coming down from Columbus, Georgia and when I came into the city I was blown away by how beautiful it was."
Although Neely admits, 13 years later, things aren't exactly as they were, in the city or the hospital.
"So much of it has changed! Obviously as the community has grown, we've increased our services as we've increased our providers. We've increased our beds. And one of the last projects I worked on when I was here was adding the 7th and 8th floors. Now we've built out that 7th floor. It was just shell space before. And to see it now and see everything humming like it is, it's very rewarding."
But beyond physical expansions and new medical technology, Neely says he learned a lot during his time away from the big building on Capital Medical Boulevard.
"I was in a very small community when I left here - Waycross, Georgia - and you really understand the importance of the connection between the hospital and the community. We have definitely had that here. But now coming back and really seeing how important it is to stay connected to the community, I think I can bring that back here and try and get ingrained in the community, meeting the needs, talking to the business and community leaders, making sure our hospital is in line with what the community needs."
Whether those needs will include a bigger hospital offering more services is still to be determined, Neely says. He thinks a more immediate focus is how federal government issues could impact health care. One thing he's watching for is a potential change to Obamacare, also called the health insurance exchange.
"One of the things we're really focused on right now are the enhanced premium tax credits. These are at the federal level, set to expire at the end of the year. Florida is one of the highest utilizers in purchasing insurance on the exchange. And making sure that those tax credits stay there and are available, so we don't have people losing their insurance. That's on us to make sure we educate our legislators on why it's so important to keep these. And then we're also concerned about any Medicaid cuts."
In the meantime, though, Dale Neely is simply delighted to be back.
"This hospital has meant a lot to me and helped me over my career. The community here in Tallahassee embraced us back in 2007 when we moved here. My oldest son graduated from Chiles High School and went on to graduate from Florida State recently. And my youngest son is set to graduate from Chiles this year. So very excited to be back here and involved in this community."
