President's Message

Welcome to Lewis-Gale Medical Center’s website. With a new look and design, we hope you’ll find our website intriguing and easy to navigate. 

This year represents an exciting time in Lewis-Gale Medical Center’s history as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our founding by Drs. J. Newton Lewis and Sparrell Simmons Gale. Both our hospital and the healthcare industry overall have changed since those early days, and yet much has remained the same.

If you’re familiar with our history, you already know that one significant change for Lewis-Gale is its growth of phenomenal proportions over the past century. Starting as a 26-bed hospital, Lewis-Gale today is a 521-bed medical center that serves as the hub of HCA Virginia Health System’s Southwestern region. 

Offering dozens of specialized services such as neurosurgery, heart surgery, and cancer care, the medical center now serves patients throughout Southwest Virginia and neighboring communities in West Virginia.   Other members of our integrated delivery health system include three sister hospitals -- Alleghany Regional, Montgomery Regional, and Pulaski Community -- two full-service cancer centers, and several outpatient diagnostic imaging and surgical centers.  We also partner with hundreds of independent and employed physicians who share our common commitment of providing superior, compassionate care and evidence-based medicine.  

Technology has also changed exponentially, and one need not look far to see our relentless pursuit of providing the best to our patients.  In just the past 18 months, we introduced digital mammography and the region’s only Synergy S for cancer patients who are benefiting from stereotactic radiosurgery.  We also introduced the region’s most sophisticated imaging system with the addition of a new 3-T MRI and began offering a new treatment using radiofrequency and cryoablation for patients suffering from irregular heartbeats that can be life-threatening.

While this new technology is impressive, what is even more impressive is the superior care that our physicians and staff are providing. Patients can take comfort in knowing that our network of hospitals consistently ranks among the top in the Commonwealth and nationwide for important areas of healthcare quality such as health outcomes, safety, satisfaction, and the delivery of evidence-based medicine.

Just a few of our accolades include being the first and only network in the region to be equipped with fully-accredited Chest Pain Centers at all of our hospitals.  Secondly, our four hospitals rank in the top 10% nationwide for quality heart attack and heart failure care, pneumonia care, and surgical infection prevention, based on benchmarks established by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare.  Additionally, a report just released from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield showed that all four of our hospitals were among the top 10 hospitals in the Commonwealth based on several healthcare quality indicators.   

I encourage you to explore for yourself – both through the pages of this site and in person at our hospital – everything we have to offer and all that we can do to start you or a family member on the road to improved health.

It’s hard to imagine what the president of HCA Southwest Virginia will be discussing 100 years from now, but I am sure of one thing. He or she will still be talking about our commitment to quality and compassionate care, because when it comes to taking care of patients, some things should never change.

Sincerely yours,

Victor E. Giovanetti, FACHE
President, HCA Southwest Virginia