Dr. Fred Thompson, currently Anson County Health Department director and former administrator of Anson Community Hospital, received the N.C. Hospital Association’s lifetime membership award July 30.
“It’s really sort of like a lifetime achievement award,” Thompson said. “It recognizes hospital presidents who have more than 20 years experience.”
Thompson was the administrator of Anson Community Hospital for 19 years, until it closed last summer to make way for the new hospital facility on U.S. Highway 74, Carolinas HealthCare System Anson. Once he stepped down as a hospital president, Thompson became director of the health department.
Thompson came to Anson County from LaGrange Memorial Hospital in Chicago in March 1995, seeking a milder climate and an escape from harsh Midwest winters. Before that, he served in the U.S. Navy as a corpsman.
Although he has fond memories of his years at the Anson Community Hospital, Thompson maintains that the county commissioners made the right decision in having that building demolished, as well as two 1913 brick buildings adjacent to the old hospital.
“I would say this. I understand the sentiment, the attachment to the old 1913 sanitorium, the nursing dorm and Anson Community Hospital, but I do believe the commissioners made the right decision,” Thompson said. “The buildings were just deteriorated to the point that rehabbing them would have been exorbitantly expensive. Plus, I think it gives us a good location for the county to put a health and human services building on that site.”
He added that while something such as an apartment building for seniors would have been nice, the buildings just needed too many renovations for any owners to be able to recoup the expenses. Also, all three buildings contained asbestos, which is expensive to remove.
“For Carolinas HealthCare System to have taken on the cost of the demolition was a good deal for Anson County,” he added.
Back to his award from the NCHA, Thompson said it was “a nice honor” for him to be recognized. “I had a rewarding experience with Carolinas HealthCare System as president of Anson Community Hospital,” he said. “With three grandchildren living in Wadesboro now, I am confident that if they were to have an accident getting off the school bus today, we have a modern, up-to-date Emergency Department where they’ll get top-notch care.”
He also said he thinks having a state-of-the-art hospital will help bring economic development to the county. “Having a new hospital is definitely a big part of economic development,” he said.
