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Terry Lerash has conversation with Peggy Leipprandt, one of the many volunteers and Auxiliary members at Scheurer.
had 1,400 nurses walk off the job and strike for 77 days – the longest RN nursing strike in the history of Michigan. It was about that same time that I got a phone call from Spence Maidlow.” Spence Maidlow, was the mastermind and key piece to creating Covenant HealthCare as it stands today. As President & CEO, Maidlow was looking to Terry to help overhaul their medical education areas, which later came to be known as Synergy Medical, now CMU Health. He accepted the position and saw it as an opportunity to transform a branch of medicine into something larger. “It took me 10 years to really turn that place around and put it in a position for CMU’s medical school to exist since they were required to have a connection with a residency training program, which we were able to provide.” CMU Health eventually purchased Synergy Medical, and Terry added jokingly, “Unfortunately, I did
almost too good of a job and worked myself out of that job.” So, it was back to Covenant HealthCare, this time as the Director of Innovation. It would not be much long after when Terry and his wife Carmen were attending a wedding in Gaylord, MI when they ran into Dwight Gascho. Dwight was starting to think about retirement and asked Terry if he would be interested in visiting Scheurer.
to the communities that we serve and a solid medical staff. Literally, everything you could ever ask for in a healthcare organi- zation, Scheurer was able to offer. “We’ve got it good here and we have been able to maintain it. The charm of Scheurer drew me in. It was small, it was intimate, you had the opportunity to know everyone – which I hadn’t experienced in my career prior to being here and the foundation was here. A solid board (of trustees), solid community, solid workforce, and solid medical staff. When you have all of those things, you can do amazing things as an organization.” Terry never suspected that his career would come full circle, retiring from an organization located not even 20 miles from where he grew up. He remembers riding his bicycle past where now Scheurer Primary Care – Bad Axe is located.
“And the rest is history.”
After visiting Scheurer for the first time, Terry fell in love with the organization that would be his home for the next six years. “It was a charming place. It was clean, everyone was remarkably friendly. When I dug down deeper, I found that the key foundation for quality healthcare was here – and that was loyal, committed people with great communities backing it up. Scheurer is in a great financial position thanks
“My dad shot a pheasant almost
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