Thursday, November 15, 2007

Huston retires after decade at JCMH in Winchester

by Kenneth Lassiter

Joye Huston is retiring at Jefferson County Memorial Hospital in Winchester, but her mission to help the hospital continue to improve will continue as the hospital board has received a fundraising challenge from a native benefactor.

Huston, chief executive officer for JCMH, told the board in the spring she planned to retire after the board could find a suitable replacement. A few months later, her replacement, LaMont Cook, most recently the director of a hospital in Oswego, has come to town and was set to start work Monday.

Huston was planning to spend a week helping Cook settle in to the job before beginning her retirement. She does plan to stay on as a board member and also continue to help raise money for JCMH.

“When I came on in 1997, my goal was to get some stability here, because things weren’t in good shape,” said Huston, who at the time was simply a Winchester native, retired nurse and hospital board member. “Really, I was just an interim person. It’s slowly gotten back on an even keel. There are hospitals in the area that are having difficulty now. We’re not. The last time a change was made in this position, we were in difficulty, and now we’re not. I’m leaving because things are settled and we’ve got a good person coming into the position.”

Recent years have seen the hospital, which also includes a geriatric center, add a six-unit assisted living wing in 2003 with the help of a $120,000 gift from William and Angela Lindsay of Gig Harbor, Wash. William Lindsay is a Winchester native who has donated large sums of money over the years for several local projects.

The Lindsays have sparked more fundraising efforts at the hospital in recent months by offering to match up to $50,000 raised by the hospital by April 2008. Huston said such recent fundraising efforts as the annual “Pitchfork Fondue” event have put the hospital’s total since the Lindsay’s challenge at about $15,000, or $20,000 if memorial contributions are counted. Huston said the biggest need at the hospital is for a new roof but the board also has sights on expanding its assisted living section.

The fund drive is one of several changes on-going at JCMH. The hospital board plans to open a thrift store for clothing soon; renovations are on-going in the lobby area; and the Lindsays have also helped spark a new idea to help make minor renovations and redecorations in patient rooms.

Huston said the redecoration idea began when Bill Lindsay’s uncle, Joe Lindsay, passed on and the Lindsays wanted to use the memorial money to remodel a room in the geriatric center. They chose the room Joe Lindsay stayed in while at the geriatric center and will help make the decisions on colors and other attributes of the room’s new look. This room will be used as an example for others to see if they think about doing the same thing.

“This gives people a chance to help by equipping a room,” said Huston, whose father-in-law was longtime county doctor F.W. Huston. “A family can adopt a room and make color choices and have some input into it. Individuals can go together to do this, or an organization can do it. Then we can either do a commemmorative plaque to honor everybody who contributes in that way, or even put a nameplate on the room door honoring each contribution. We thought it would potentially be a great way to get the nursing home redecorated.”

Huston said the hospital has no firm dollar figure on what a room redecoration would cost in contributions but it has been estimated at more than $2,000. The first room done will give hospital officials a better idea of the cost.

The hospital board hopes to have the used clothing store operational by the time winter sets in, Huston said. She said the hospital has a couple people committed to overseeing the store but will be actively looking for more volunteers to help staff it.

“We were looking at that as a need up here,” Huston said. “We could take donations here and put drop-off boxes in other towns. We’re excited to get things going. We thought it was a great fit for the community and will help the hospital as well.”

The renovations in the lobby area on the south side of the hospital building are under way to help route visitors and outpatient foot traffic through that area rather than through the emergency entrance on the east side of the hospital. Huston said some landscaping and exterior work will also be included to help. Some native walnut wood used in the construction of that part of the hospital will be preserved and kept in use.

As she entered the last couple weeks of her full-time work at JCMH, Huston said the time was right to let someone else have the reins. She plans to spend more time with family and is working on a book. She also is mulling piecing together a history of the hospital for posterity’s sake. The hospital celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006.

“It’s easy to say you’re thinking about retiring as soon as this thing is done but then another thing always comes along,” said Huston, who has 18 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. She was honored with a surprise retirement reception Oct. 28 at the hospital. “I decided I was going to retire, but I wanted to give the board time to find a good replacement and they have. This will give me more time with family and I’d really like to pull together the history of the hospital, because I think that needs to be done. It’s such an interesting story.

“I never intended to be here this long, but you get into it. Really, my work here has to be the capstone of my career. I’ve done what I intended to do, and that was to help get this place back on its feet. It’s been the most satisfying job I’ve had. There are a lot of good people who help make it happen.”