Highlands News-Sun: A Focus On Wellness

This article was written by Phil Attinger of the Highlands News-Sun.

Randy Surber has served as CEO for AdventHealth Sebring now for almost five years. He wants to see the campus serve as a resource for wellness and prevention of health problems as well as surgery and treatment.

SEBRING — Closing in on five years as CEO of AdventHealth Sebring, Randy Surber said he wants the hospital to remain a premiere facility in Florida’s rural Heartland.

More than that, however, he wants it to serve as a center for wellness, especially giving people the tools and knowledge to stay healthy.

“I’m most passionate about wellness,” Surber said. “I want to have that proper balance. It’s about finding a balance of life to make sure you maintain good health.”

That also happens through relationships built in a vibrant community, he said, bringing out the best in people and bringing in the best people to help.

“If we can teach people how to be well, it improves their quality of life,” Surber said. “It does make a difference.”

He estimates that 80-85% of people in the hospital are there because of health and lifestyle issues. Teaching people to make good life choices, he said, could help avoid costly healthcare.

It’s a focus that came into sharp relief as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. People became acutely aware of their health, the value of good healthcare and the need to take a break from tremendous stress.

COVID-19 took away family members and realigned the work-life balance for many people. Some of the things that AdventHealth already had as programs have moved to the forefront, with the addition of more programs.

People now want to take wellness classes, learn more about cooking their own food and even growing their own food, as well as getting good exercise.

“Everyone doesn’t have to be a marathon runner,” Surber said.

Rather, he said, people need to keep the aspects of their life — family, home, work, health, food, exercise and recreation — in balance.

“Anytime any of those aspects of life get out of balance,” Surber said, “[you’re] likely to develop health problems.”

Meanwhile, he said he’s looking at opportunities to grow all aspects of local healthcare to meet the needs of a growing community. For example, The Wellness Center is planned as a 22,000- to 25,000-square-foot building, giving people a one-stop-shop for their daily health.

In another area, AdventHealth has been educating physicians, nurses and surgical technicians through residency and internships with the hospital, in cooperation with big universities as well as local education, like South Florida State College.

The first class of the resident physicians, eight people chosen out of 700 applications, graduated in July, Surber said. This year, he said, 1,800 have applied for those eight slots.

Surber said he didn’t originally think that doctors of the quality of education that have applied would be interested in a more local setting like Sebring.

“They are applying from all over the world,” Surber said. “They’ve been extraordinarily helpful to us, with all hands on deck.”

Surber also wants to keep adding to the buildings on the AdventHealth campus, adding floors if he can — most two-story sections can go up to five, he said — because the pandemic proved that more beds are needed.

The team is extremely resilient, Surber said, and remained busy because of COVID-19. If anything came out of this pandemic, he said, it’s the need to put life in perspective and make it the fullest life possible.

“We want to make sure the people we serve do live a full, happy life,” Surber said.?