Healthcare Directory

12 | 2022 Medical & Dental Directory Cape Fear Valley Hoke Hospital A culture of caring with 'an awesome team' By Kim Hasty Photography by Cindy Burnham Additional photos contributed by Cape Fear Valley Health Roxie Wells, M.D., president of Cape Fear Valley Hoke, helped open the hospital in 2015, then took over full-time as president in 2019. T hey had been planning to celebrate with the entire community in 2020 a fifth- anniversary event that would have included live music, games for families and plenty of good food across a sprawling campus. The pandemic canceled all that, but here on the polished floors of Cape Fear Valley Health Pavilion Hoke, everyone seems to be smiling anyway. "This is an awesome team," said Roxie Wells, M.D., president of Cape Fear Valley Hoke. "The building is beautiful, but the team is amazing. This is the best group of people here. They want to be here. "I think you'd be hard-pressed to walk through the building and find someone who's scowling or won't say hello," she said. "That's just the culture we've fostered here." The facility opened in 2015, offering Hoke County its first full-service hospital. Located just over the Cumberland County line, the hospital draws patients not only from Hoke, but also from Cumberland, Bladen, Robeson and Harnett counties. With 41 spacious rooms, the complex offers a wide range of services, including in-patient and out- patient surgery, radiology, physical therapy, a retail pharmacy, a full-service lab, a sleep program, evening telemedicine and a busy emergency department. "We anticipated seeing about 15,000 to 18,000 patients a year in our ER," Wells said. "We've blown that out of the water at 40,000-plus." Wells, a native of tiny Fayette, Alabama, helped open the hospital in 2015, then took over full-time as president in 2019. Her husband's career as a preacher had originally brought the couple to North Carolina, where she earned a degree from Fayetteville State University in biology, then enrolled in E. Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine. "And then, in my third year of med school, I had a baby," she said. That baby is now a

• Cover