CEO
Melissa Memorial Hospital
Michael Hassell is the CEO of Melissa Memorial Hospital a 15 bed Critical Access Hospital in Holyoke Colorado. His experience includes roles in healthcare leadership, EMS clinical practice, and consulting. Notable positions include Deputy Incident Commander for Region 7 All Hazards Incident Command in Florida during the COVID-19 crisis. He has also held leadership positions at various healthcare facilities, demonstrating expertise in leadership development, operations, safety, emergency management, and service line expansion. Michael is a Fellow with both the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). Michael helped write the NRHA Policy paper on Cybersecurity and has lectured on this topic at the national level through NRHA. He is scheduled to speak and lead a breakout meeting on “Thriving during Change” at the upcoming ACHE conference in Houston early next year. Michael holds an associate degree in EMS (Paramedic), a bachelor’s degree with a focus on Organizational Leadership, and an MBA with a focus on Leadership and Strategy. He adjuncts with Regis University in the Healthcare Leadership Program.
Following a lengthy career at the bedside as both an EMS and a Critical Care Paramedic, Michael rose through the ranks at a large system in Orlando Florida including multiple positions managing departments to opening the first two freestanding emergency departments with attached allied health offices in that system. At the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, Michael was tasked by the Governor of Florida through the EMS State office to open and operate a large field hospital in Fort Lauderdale. Assigned as Deputy Incident Commander of the initiative, he was later made responsible for maintaining the operation of Skilled Nursing Facilities and Assisted Living Facilities throughout the region. He then assumed an administrative leadership position at a 100 bed Rural Hospital in Alabama where he oversaw practices, led new and existing construction, and strategic initiatives.
In 2022, Michael was hired by Melissa Memorial Hospital in Holyoke Colorado as CEO. Since that time many initiatives have been completed to strengthen both the hospitals individual performance as well as the performance and sustainability of other hospitals on the Eastern Plains and throughout Colorado. He is deeply involved with ACHE, NRHA, CHA, CRHC, AND EPHC. He serves on local and regional boards such as the Bridge Foundation (Holyoke), Centennial AHEC, and the Eastern Plains Health Consortium. Michael was recently invited to join the board of CHA Shared Services. Passionate about rural health advocacy, Michael has joined CRHC/NRHA at the last two Policy Institute Conferences in Washington DC where he has met and worked with Federal lawmakers on topics from EMS to VA Affairs, and the Hospital Revitalization Act II as promoted by Kevin Stansbury. Michael is a regular and active member in both CHA sponsored trips to the Golden Dome and with local Phillips County Political issues such as resolutions to maintain county control of EMS licensing (which assured cost-based reimbursement for our local ambulance services). This year Michael was appointed by Governor Polis to the State Emergency Medical Trauma Advisory Board, SEMTAC where he is an active member of the Board and the Trauma Designation Review Sub-Committee.
Michael is community and mission minded. He focuses on increasing awareness of the challenges and barriers smaller non-profit hospitals encounter. When not busy with his work, Michael enjoys building and flying airplanes and has recently taken up snowboarding where he falls a lot.
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Thriving in Change Management for Healthcare System Optimization (124H)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
10:45am – 11:45am CT