Key Named Permanent Cookeville Regional Medical Center CEO

Cookeville Regional Medical Center officially appoints Buffy Key as the permanent CEO of the hospital.

The decision came from the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday night. Key said she plans to continue the moment she has had since becoming the interim CEO.

“We’ve got to reinvest in our people reinvest in our communication, make sure everything we’re doing is exactly what the patient needs when they need it and how they need it,” Key said. “But honestly, we need to look to the future. We need to look at partnerships. How can we be bigger? How can we be better?”

Key has been serving as the interim CEO since Paul Korth announced his retirement earlier this year. The position was approved unanimously by the Board of Trustees.

Outgoing Past Chair Kevin Carter made the motion, saying it was one of the most important decisions the board could make. He said that Key fit every single criterion needed to be a successful CEO of CRMC.

“When you have a job that’s so demanding and requires so much it’s difficult to find someone that checks off all the boxes, it’s no easy job to do that,” Carter said. “(…) After having carefully identified and considered the required qualifications and the required skills, we did it. We found the right candidate to give us the continued success and future growth that we need.”

The executive committee will move forward with negotiations with the goal of finalizing and executing Key’s contract.