SUPERPOWER: Determination
Chief Administrative Officer, Preston Memorial Hospital
Melissa Lockwood’s path to hospital CAO was not one she expected to find herself on. Accounting was her first love, and she spent time as a CPA before entering health care. While working at an accounting firm, she was placed in a community hospital to complete its annual financial audit. “I absolutely loved it,” she says. “At the time, I had no idea what health care administration was, but I really enjoyed getting to learn about the hospital and seeing a different viewpoint of a career out there.” A few years later, she took a job overseeing financial operations at Preston Memorial Hospital as its controller, and the rest is history.
In her role as CAO over the past 15 years, Lockwood has helped usher in some spectacular services—including relocating the hospital to a brand new, expanded facility in 2015, where patients can receive treatments and care that are often out of reach in more rural areas.
Among these offerings is a dedicated infusion center, something near to Lockwood’s heart. Her husband had cancer, and she remembers how much they had to travel to receive care. She feels lucky they had the resources to make those trips, but she knows all too well that many don’t and how that lack of transportation or support can impact health. When people don’t have these things, she says, the expense can keep them from seeking care when problems first appear, and they may refuse treatment after diagnosis because they know they will be unable to get to their appointments or afford their care. “They’re much further along when they’re diagnosed with cancer, and the progression of disease is impacted by that. So if there’s anything we can do to push that access out to those smaller communities, I think it’s so important that we do.”
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