At HCMC, Family is at the Core

All businesses like to say their employees are like a family, but here at Henry County Medical Center [HCMC], we TRULY are a family. Our employees span generations and include spouses, parents, children, and extended family members across all of our campuses. One of our longest standing family employee relationships is with the Casterline and Dyson families. This outstanding team of father, Dale, mother, Debbie, and daughter Sarah has served HCMC and our community for a combined 102 years! Together, they take the idea of HCMC being a family to a whole different level.

Dale Casterline began his full-time career at HCMC in 1979 in plant operations, as a Maintenance Tech, a Biomed Tech, and a supervisor. Dale retired after 28 years. He was eager to return part-time to his HCMC family and continue working. Dale returned to work in the communications department. During this time, Dale won a battle against cancer and enjoys his days now living cancer-free. After retiring completely in 2021, Dale closed the chapter of 42 years of service to HCMC.

Dale’s wife, Debbie Casterline, also has a long history at HCMC. Debbie’s journey at HCMC began in 1983 when she met her future husband. For 34 years, Debbie worked in the business office and handled everything from billing to contract negotiations and management. Debbie had a brief four month retirement in 2020 and returned to her HCMC family as a part-time employee in physician billing. She continues to work part-time and doesn’t have plans of leaving any time soon. When asked, Debbie said besides the love of staying busy, it was her coworkers and the family atmosphere of HCMC that brought her out of retirement so quickly.

Finally, Dale and Debbie’s daughter Sarah Dyson was born and raised in the halls of HCMC, so a career here was a no-brainer. Starting as a part-time employee in the registration office at just 16 years old, Sarah has been at HCMC for the majority of her life. After spending 22 years in registration and creating bonds that will last a lifetime, Sarah moved to the HCMC Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine and has enjoyed working there since 2021.

Each member of the family started at HCMC for a different reason, but all stayed–or came back– for the same reason. Dale knew he wanted to be in maintenance work, so there was nothing medical about his calling to HCMC. He felt that maintenance work was the same regardless of where you are, but he wanted a good, stable place to work and found it at HCMC.

Debbie was also not specifically called into the medical field but knew she needed a place to work whenever jobs were hard to come by. Once offered a position at HCMC, she never looked back. She truly enjoyed learning ways to help the organization overall and the pace of working in a demanding field. Sarah grew up at HCMC and after seeing the love her parents felt here over the years, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. She loves helping people and has a knack for helping others through the tangle of navigating their insurance.

Regardless of the reason each of them started, they all continued over the years with the same thought: HCMC is family and there’s no place they would rather be. From doctors, to nurses, to the registration office, to maintenance, to housekeeping, to physicians, to specialists–every person in the HCMC organization has become part of their family and they have created unbreakable, irreplaceable bonds.

Of course, with a combined span of 102 years, the family has lasting memories of their time at HCMC. For Dale, what stands out the most are the men he worked with. He will always cherish the time spent with the other members of the maintenance crew, specifically Robbie Smith, whom he worked with for many years and continues to look up to. Debbie remembers the outpouring of love that was shown to her and her family during a tragedy. After the unforeseen death of a family member, Dale and Debbie along with their two young children spent countless hours at HCMC. While there, the staff, whether they knew them at the time or not, rallied together to do everything in their power to comfort and console them and help in any way possible.

At HCMC, we’re proud to call ourselves one big family. Whether our employees are related or not, we’re all family and that’s what pushes us to be the good for our community.

* Submitted by HCMC