I’m sharing a story today I stole from this week’s edition of my hometown newspaper, the Adams County Record, in Hettinger, North Dakota. Because this is a very exciting story. But before you read it, get out your calendar and mark 7 p.m. September 27, a week from this Sunday, to turn on CNN on your television. Because I think you’re going to see a very heartwarming story about a little town on the prairie and its incredible medical community. I’m especially proud of this story because, way back when, my Dad, an Optometrist, and my Mom, a Registered Nurse, were part of the beginning of this story. Here, read the story.

CNN comes to Hettinger

CNN CAMERA CREW films West River Health Services CEO Alyson Kornele as she works at her computer during a recent visit to the facility.

By Bethany Erickson

For the past 30 days, Hettinger has had a few extra cameras around town. 

CNN arrived at West River Health Services in August to spend a month getting a closer look at rural healthcare and the people working to keep it going. The crew was here to capture the real day-to-day life of a rural hospital, no staging, no big production, just people doing what they normally do. 

After a month, they became a familiar sight. 

The CNN crew also got a taste of what it means to live in a small town. They quickly found their way to The Grind Theory, which helped satisfy any big city coffee addictions they brought with them. They also discovered the small walkable but inviting town we call home. From late night walks to running at 5:00 a.m., the crew quickly grew to love our quiet town. By the end of the month, they had experienced a little bit of everything. 

One of the more fun stops during their time here was at Hettinger Public School, where the crew spent time with students involved in the school’s Media and Stream Team. For students who spend their time behind the camera, editing video and telling stories of their own, getting advice from a national news crew was awesome. The message they had was simple: trust your process. “You have to trust your process that you will get there. It is not going to be your first draft, but it might be your 50th. You’re going to have a story”.

It is advice that applies well beyond making videos. Sometimes you just have to keep working at something, make the bad first draft, try again and trust that eventually the story will come together. 

That is really, what the CNN crew was here to do. Find the story behind rural healthcare. 

West River Health Services serves communities throughout North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Like many rural communities across the country, Hettinger is dealing with population decline and the challenge of finding and keeping healthcare professionals. 

WRHS CEO Alyson Kornele said the strength of the hospital starts with the community itself. 

“We have such an incredible hospital here, and that really starts with the community members who had the vision to build it and the generations of people who have chosen to work here and carry that legacy forward.”

“But Hettinger is also facing the same population decline that so many rural communities across America are experiencing. That means we have to be agile and creative about how we fill workforce gaps while continuing to provide the healthcare our communities depend on.”

One part of that solution has been recruiting H-1B professionals from around the world. 

“We’ve been fortunate to recruit H-1B professionals who have stepped into some of those gaps. They come here and work alongside people who have dedicated years, and in some cases their entire careers, to this hospital. They learn from one another, support one another, and together they allow us to continue providing care close to home.”

Kornele said the hospital’s workforce is made up of people with very different stories, but all of them play an important role.

“When I look at our workforce, I recognize it takes the long-time employee who has served this community for 30+ years, the person who grew up here and chose to come back, and the professional who moved across the world and chose rural North Dakota. I’m not sure where we would be without each of them playing their part.”

For employees, having a national news crew in the hospital for an entire month was certainly an experience, one that required a little patience, and flexibility.

For the community, it was an opportunity to show that rural healthcare is about much more than statistics and workforce shortages. It is about neighbors caring for neighbors, people who have spent decades here, employees building careers in the same place they call home, and people from thousands of miles away choosing to become part of a community.

THANK YOU to our community and patients, we could not have done this without you as well. 

If the crew took anything away from their month in Hettinger, I hope it was this: rural North Dakota may not have a coffee shop on every corner, but we have good people, good healthcare, and apparently enough coffee to keep CNN running for 30 days.

The CNN special is scheduled to air September 27 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time as part of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.