BROOKHAVEN — Scott Christensen, Chief Executive Officer for KDMC, gave the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors an update on the hospital Monday morning. Christensen thanked the board for having him. 

He said it had been a while since the hospital had given an update to the board. One rumor he wanted to dispel quickly was the hospital was not being sold. Christensen said it is one he hears every couple of months. 

KDMC is continuing work as a good corporate citizen by updating their strategic plan. They plan to focus on growth, their team, people, finance and quality care under the revised strategic plan. 

“We are really trying to make sure our home market is taken care of,” Christensen said. “We can’t lose sight of our local community. We are in a good place. We are seeing growth in outside areas. Our team is reinvesting in our people with raises. We have a plan to spend over $8.2 million in capital improvements. We are in a good position to reinvest and try to implement our growth plans.”

KDMC has planned capital improvement projects including a new MRI machine, renovating the delivery and labor unit and expanding behavioral and mental health services. In recruitment, the hospital is working to recruit new doctors for the OBGYN wing and in 2026 will have a dermatologist. 

Christensen said the hospital will add an Ears, Nose and Throat doctor with Ryan Case partnering with KDMC. They hope to have a new urologist in August. 

“We have a lot of positive trends and momentum,” Christensen said. “We went through a lot of change and cleanup. I think right now we are in the age of stability but we are like a coiled spring. In the next few years we will let it loose.”

There are some uncertainties for the hospital under President Donald Trump’s administration. Christensen said between 60 to 70 percent of the hospital’s revenue comes from netcare and medicaid. 

“It has a huge impact on us so we are keeping an eye on what happens there,” Christensen said. 

He told the board in 2024, the hospital saw 26,000 ER visits, 70,000 visits to clinics and a couple thousand hospital admissions. 

District 3 Supervisor John David Hart asked Christensen about the ambulance service as the topic did not come up in his presentation. Hart is the fire chief at Hog Chain Volunteer Fire Department and has experience working with dispatch and emergency services. 

“Fire departments are getting paged out to medical calls and there is no ambulance available because they are on an out of county transfer,” Hart said. “It is a very big issue and it is not being handled. We have people suffering. The other day they were five calls behind. I would love to see you look into it.”

Christensen told Hart he was not aware of a problem with ambulance response due to out of county transfers. KDMC reported the ambulance service responded to 7,137 calls in 2024, or an average of 19.5 calls a day, which is the most they have ever run. The hospital did not provide the average response time. 

Typically, KDMC has three ambulances working in the county unless they leave for mutual aid or transfers.