Former chief now in Lindsborg
Staff writer
Mark Rooker, chief executive at Hillsboro Community Hospital from Jan. 20, 2020, until Feb. 3, is now chief executive at Lindsborg Community Hospital.
Rooker’s ties to Hillsboro remain deep, he said, and he and his wife will maintain the home they built there to be their retirement home.
“When we developed that property in Hillsboro, we knew we would eventually end up there,” Rooker said.
The Lindsborg hospital is a branch of Salina Regional Health Center.
The hospital, in a community of 3,800, is larger than HCH. It offers emergency services, a clinic, urgent care, walk-in care, laboratory services, and in-house radiology services instead of services available when a radiology truck comes.
The hospital and its staff are highly involved in the community, he said. It participates in the community’s senior meal service, and the hospital and employees participate in many community service projects.
Lindsborg was “very welcoming” to Rooker and his family, he said. They have been getting to know the unique aspects of the community, with its Swedish culture.
A Hillsboro resident when he became chief executive at HCH, Rooker previously had been chief executive and chief of information at El Dorado’s Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital.
He was hired for HCH by Rural Hospital Group after it purchased HCH out of bankruptcy in 2019.