GHS CEO Adam McConnell places focus on compassionate staff, essential services
Adam McConnell has big plans for the future of Granville Health System (GHS), and the expertise and background to make his vision a reality. The key? Focus the spotlight on GHS’s caring, compassionate staff, and the important medical services it offers the residents of Granville County.
McConnell, an Erwin, N.C. native, has spent almost all his professional career in healthcare. After graduating from the Campbell University Lundy-Fetterman School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a MBA, he worked at Sampson Regional Medical Center in Clinton, N.C., starting as an IT tech and working his way up to Controller in the Finance Department. From there, McConnell worked for a couple of larger for-profit hospitals as Chief Financial Officer before joining Granville Health System in March 2018 as interim CFO. In early 2023, he was promoted to interim CEO, and officially named CEO in November 2023.
“I was looking for an independent community hospital where I could be impactful, and that was definitely the case with Granville Health System,” McConnell observes. “In addition, I wanted to stay as close to the Triangle as possible. I have a young daughter, and Oxford felt like a great place to raise children.”
McConnell believes GHS’s 652 employees are the heart and soul of the Oxford-based community healthcare system, and touts its medical providers’ specialties and expertise at every opportunity.
“I recently attended the Granville Chamber of Commerce’s 82nd annual banquet dinner, and I talked about our staff, who are all incredibly compassionate and committed to the work they do,” McConnell says. “When I asked our staff what they wanted, they said they want the community to know who they are, and that they are ready and prepared to take care of them. So, my vision for the hospital is to introduce our staff to the community even more, and promote our core values and leadership.”
McConnell believes he has the experience and expertise to boost community awareness regarding the exceptional medical services offered by GHS, and make it the number-one healthcare destination for Granville County. “I have an understanding of what it takes to run an independent hospital,” he notes. “It’s very entrepreneurial and takes a level of dedication. We do everything here at GHS, and are not owned or managed by anyone. For me, knowing the ins and outs of the facility and what drives and motivates the staff is extremely helpful. I’m from a small North Carolina community in which healthcare is diminished, and that drives me to make sure the residents of Granville County and the surrounding areas are supported by a strong healthcare system that meets their needs.”
Granville Health System does just that with a variety of essential medical services that address all but the most complex issues, McConnell adds. It starts with the in-house 911 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program, and continues with primary care, specialty services such as urology, cardiology, ENT, gastroenterology, surgery, physical therapy, long-term care and more.
“The most important thing around all of this is the people at Granville Health System who are taking care of you,” McConnell continues. “Because Oxford is such a small community, there’s a good chance that one of our employees is your neighbor. When our staff takes care of you, you’re not just a room number or medical record number, you’re a person, which leads to a very personal approach to healthcare.”
Oxford’s close proximity to Raleigh and Durham also benefits GHS in that it can easily tap the Triangle’s sizable pool of high-quality providers, many of whom are eager to leave the hectic pace of a large city for the more bucolic environment of Granville County.
“Providers want to work in a community like Oxford because they want to provide that personal approach to care,” McConnell notes. “They’re not looking to work in a high-volume practice where they’re seeing three or more patients an hour, they want that personal relationship with their patients. You see that from Emergency Medical Services to the emergency department to the physicians who work here – they’re all here for the same reason to promote well-being, accelerate healing, and inspire hope to the communities we serve.
