CEO Update: Welcoming our new chief medical officer, Dr. Staci Rogers

CEO Update
• 25 March 2026

Michael Calhoun shares the latest happenings at CMH in his monthly CEO Updates. He is the CEO/executive director of CMH and the Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation.

I’m excited to introduce Dr. Staci Rogers, who is our new chief medical officer and a member of our executive team.

Dr. Rogers was born and raised nearby in Lebanon and is an OB/GYN by training. She worked at Cox Health for almost 18 years as a practicing physician and held several leadership roles, including Integration Officer, Transformation Officer and Medical Director for Women’s Health.

Having been raised in a rural community similar to Bolivar, Dr. Rogers has seen firsthand the challenges we face in rural health care and the importance of accessible health care to our communities.

Continue reading the blog post or watch the video to learn more from our conversation about:

• Physician involvement
• Building relationships
• Medical staff culture and recruitment
• Next steps for the future

Physician involvement

Calhoun: As we think about where we’re going in the future and what our goals are, one of the things we discussed was wanting to get physicians more involved in decision-making in the way that we provide care. I know that’s something you’re very passionate about. How important is that in the care delivery for CMH?

Dr. Rogers: Physicians are used to being in leadership roles, whether they realize it or not. They’re the leaders of the care team. Where I feel like we have a great opportunity as we continue to grow as an organization is to also put physicians in some of those more formal leadership roles, making sure that they’re working together with our nursing leaders, our operational leaders and even our senior executive leaders to really bring that clinical perspective to all of the decisions that we make.

That’s central to the care we provide and to how we take care of our patients and the communities we serve. We want to make sure that piece is at the forefront of every decision we make. It comes by putting all the minds and all the information at the same table. It’s just like if we were going to make a purely financial decision, we need all the financial information. If we’re going to make a clinical decision, we need all the clinical information. If we put all those aspects together, we’re going to make the best decisions for the organization.

Building relationships

Calhoun: Talk to me about how you’re using your time in these first days to start building and forming those relationships.

Dr. Rogers: I’m spending a good portion of my time just getting out and meeting our physicians and our advanced practice providers where they are, seeing our facilities — whether it’s clinics, some of our long-term care facilities or the different departments within the hospital — and joining those groups where we have physicians or clinicians coming together to discuss issues.

I’m understanding where they are, where they see opportunities and where they may have challenges or pebbles in their shoe that we can start to elevate and work on solving together.

Medical staff culture and recruitment

Calhoun: One of the things that I’m really impressed with is the culture of our medical staff, how we’re able to attract new quality physicians, because the ones we have here are really good and really bought in to the mission of CMH. Recruitment is really a key priority in our ability to grow as we recruit new physicians. What is your perspective on physician recruitment, and how do we continue to grow it at CMH?

Dr. Rogers: Our biggest asset that we have to recruit new physicians to CMH is the physicians that we already have here. I have been so impressed by the depth and breadth of the specialties that we have, where they’ve trained, their own journeys and where they’ve practiced, and how they ended up here at CMH. So many of our physicians have said, if they’ve been other places, “Yeah, I just wish I’d been here sooner.” And that speaks volumes. The way that they collaborate amongst specialties is also really important. I know that’s been a big focus of the organization and how we’ve grown the culture that we have here with our physicians.

Calhoun: We want to make sure all the voices, all the people in the care team, are valued, that they’re heard, and that we’re working together to care for the patients.

That’s going to be key as we move forward and grow, to keep that personal touch that we have, not just between each other but for the patient. Patients tell us that’s what they really appreciate about CMH. They’re not treated like a number. They’re treated like a person, a family member. We want to keep that.

Next steps for the future

Calhoun: I know right now you’re doing a lot of level-setting and getting your feet on the ground, meeting the people. I think you’ve probably seen some things that are exciting next steps for our future. Talk about what you think are the next big priorities that we have or what you’re focused on.

Dr. Rogers: As I have been learning more about CMH — where we are, where we’ve been and where we think we’re going — we’ve seen a lot of growth in the last five years in terms of the volume of patients that we’re taking care of and the acuity, or how sick those patients are. We only expect that to continue to grow.

I’m really excited to work with our care teams, both our physicians and our nursing teams, to figure out how we can maybe do things a little bit better to accommodate that growth a little bit differently, but without losing the quality of care that we are known for providing.

An example of that would be in our operating room spaces. We’ve always been really fortunate here at CMH to have plenty of space to go around for the surgeries that we needed to do. But as we’re seeing our volumes pick up, we need to look at how we can better use that space to accommodate those volumes. I’m excited to work with our surgeons and our OR leadership to take a fresh look at that and figure out how we align where we’re doing which cases and take great care of those patients.

On the inpatient side, kind of the same thing. We’re moving into this beautiful new building, a great new Emergency Room space. But there’s also an opportunity to look at how we are working through those processes to make the best use of that space and provide the highest-quality care all throughout our system.

Calhoun: I want to let you know how much I appreciate you being a part of our team here at CMH. I know you’re going to be a great fit here. I’m excited about the experience you bring, and already I’m seeing the relationships you’re building with our medical staff. I’m so pleased that you’ve joined our team and look forward to working together with you as we grow in the future, too.