Getting to know the intricacies of CFVBCH CEO Spencer Cummings

ELIZABETHTOWN – The success of a small-town Clarksdale, Mississippi, child who grew up with strong role models, a driving education and a lot of love has brought his work ethic and passion to succeed to the Cape Fear Valley Bladen County Hospital.

Spencer Cummings who once had aspirations to shine on an NFL football field has put his passion into the small burg of Elizabethtown where he is not only an administration guru, but a strong role model for the youth of the community.

“Clarksdale is right outside of Memphis, Tennessee,” Cummings said. “We like to call it the Blues capital of the world because most blues musicians have come through there at some point in their life. You hea about the crossroads? That’s right there in Clarksville, Mississippi.”

According to Atlasoscura.com, “Clarksdale is known as the birthplace of the blues and home to the Crossroads where, according to popular (though fictional) music folklore, blues legend Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for supernatural musical ability.”

“I was born and raised there in a small town, about the size of Elizabethtown,” Cummings said. “I came from a family of preachers, brick masons and educators. I knew while laying bricks that I was not going to do that for the rest of my life. I enjoyed it. It’s a great pastime and hobby, but I didn’t want to do it for a living. My granddaddy sent all of his kids through college by laying bricks. My dad was actually a dean of a community college and my mom was an educator as well.”

Cummings laughs when he tells how he was the middle brother of three. He also learned from growing up with educators surrounding him that his grandfather’s hard work was done for the education of his family.

He graduated from little Clarksdale High School and up until senior year he had aspirations of being a football player and his speed and his knowledge of the game could have gotten him there as it did for another famous Mississippi young man, Jerry Rice who grew up just down the road from Cummings. Rice proved that sometimes the great ones come from small places.

“Jerry Rice was from that area,” he said. “His dad was a brick mason so our hands were strong and we could catch a ball from anywhere.

Cummings was playing both ways senior year, a safety on the defensive side of the ball and on offense he was a slot receiver.

“My senior year, first game of the season, I got struck in the eye,” Cummings said. “My teammate and I were going for a tackle and somehow his hand got through my helmet. Next thing I know I saw stars and then I saw nothing. I couldn’t play football anymore. All the scholarships and plans that were on the table were now gone. I had to let them go. So I went to a small Christian College in Jackson, Mississippi, called Tougaloo college.”

At the time, Cummings didn’t know how serious the injury was and was all ready to go back and play the next week. When he heard the bad news, Cummings describes it as the start of his blessing.

“The injury happened on a Friday night in 1984 and I went into the doctor,” he said. “This is not good, the doctor said. You have a detached retina. He said, let me make a call. He called Dr. Meyers in Memphis who was the leading vitreal retinal surgeon at the time.”

The surgeon that was chosen by a divine hand at the time had been a surgeon for Sugar Ray Leonard. Doors opened for a critical surgery and time is a critical factor in retinal surgery.

“I went up there the same day,” Cummings said. “I got a quick pass in to see him and he told me I needed surgery that day. I had that surgery and it saved my sight. I’m now 20/20 with a contact in that eye.”

He ended up having the laser surgery three times. After surgery he was made to lay on his face for a month in a dark room with no light.

“I was just in my room, on my face with migraines,” he said. “My other senses became so intense and I became agitated because I couldn’t tolerate any noise around me.”

He said that the worst part was watching others play football and knowing he had to lay that part of his life down. It wasn’t only something he loved, but something he had worked hard to attain his stature.

His mom being an educator and could have gotten her doctorate in education, but chose to stay in the classroom teaching children. She had pushed Cummings to summer school each year where he took advanced placement classes and by the time senior year rolled around, he could have graduated early. His mom was a driving force in the good times and the bad.

“My mom was the enforcer, but my dad was the threat,” he said. “You didn’t want to make it to threat level.”

Cummings met his wife while in college and both were involved in the medical field.

“We got married in 1990 and were both in the University of Mississippi medical center at that time,” he said. “She went to occupational therapy school and I was in medical technology school which was laboratory medicine.”

On a trip to Cape Fear Medical, they both sides liked what they saw and they gave them a scholarship for their last year of school. They then owed Cape Fear a year of service at the main campus and they fell in love with the area and stayed on permanently. They have now been with the Cape Fear Valley Health System for 31 years.

“My career has taken an interesting journey,” he said. “First, I got a job because I had to pay bills, so that was for me. Then a short time later I realized I had to serve the hospital. And then I got to serve the patients. Then I got to serve the customers who were coming in directly. Now I am serving this community. It was a natural progression of things. When this job came available, I had a chance to sit back and pray about it – realizing the progression of seed, time and harvest. For me the harvest came really quickly.”

Cummings went on to get his master’s degree at Fayetteville State University in 2017.

When he came to Elizabethtown, he was working as the VP of surgical services and he felt led to apply for the position. After the process of hiring had been accomplished, he started with boots on the ground Oct. 18, 2023.

“I’m still under the Cape Fear Valley umbrella and this is just one of the campuses,” Cummings said. “The first thing I did was learn. I had to find out all the activities we have going on. We do have our own board here and when we came down here there were not a lot of clinics. We started listening as to what services were needed and we started putting physicians in different areas to take care the needs. Now it’s just not the hospital alone, but we also have clinics that are Cape Fear Valley clinics that help to support the community and also provide a local place where they can get services.”

Cape Fear Valley is a critical care access hospital and they are bound by a 25 bed maximum and an ED that is 24/7. You also have to be 35 miles from the nearest hospital. Critical access means that more people have access to the care provided. It’s not about the dollars at that point in time as there are monies available for the health facility to take care of the costs from that perspective.

“We started the growth to access to care providing different types of providers,” he said. “We have podiatry, pediatrics, family care, express care – so you can get access to them. We also have certified ED physicians rather than local family practice doctors.”

According to Cummings, the Live, Work and Play has a mission that the county is involved in. He said that he’s heard that the biggest thing the county exports is the children. The goal is to keep the children here and give them a reason to stay here.

Cummings is motivated, he is educated and he is driven to see the community succeed. He truly is one of our most precious natural resources.

Cape Fear Valley Bladen Hospital is located at 501 S. Poplar Street in Elizabethtown. For more information you can visit them online at: bladenhealthcare.org. Also, Spencer Cummings will be the featured speaker at this month’s Elizabethtown-White Lake Chamber Membership Breakfast that will take place at the Cape Fear Farmers Market. For information, please call the Chamber office at: (910) 862-4368.