After a year spent looking back on 75 years of caring for the community, Sampson Regional Medical Center staff and administrators closed a year-long anniversary celebration Thursday afternoon by looking toward its next milestone — and leaving a piece of the present behind for those who will celebrate it in the future.
Hospital leaders, employees and guests gathered for the conclusion of the hospital’s 75th anniversary observance, highlighted by recognition from the American Hospital Association and the unveiling of a time capsule that will remain sealed until the medical center celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2050.
Morgan Shaw, Sampson Regional’s director of Business Development, opened the ceremony by reflecting on a year of activities designed to celebrate the hospital’s history while recognizing the people who continue its work today.
The anniversary observance began with a kickoff event last October and continued through a series highlighting some of the hospital’s longest-tenured employees alongside some of its newest. Employees also participated in a rock hunt across hospital property and a three-month, 75-mile walking challenge.
“As we look back on this milestone year, we also wanted to create something that would capture memories, people and moments that made our 75th anniversary so special,” Shaw shared.
Throughout the year, hospital officials collected items and memories for the time capsule, which Shaw described as a snapshot of the organization at this point in its history.
“It’s been a special year celebrating our history, honoring our people and recognizing the community that we serve,” she remarked. “As we reflect on this past year, there is much to be proud of and grateful for.”
The afternoon also brought special recognition from the American Hospital Association, with Region 3 Regional Executive Matthew Wright presenting Sampson Regional with an award recognizing 75 years of AHA membership.
Wright noted that the anniversary represents more than the longevity of a hospital, particularly considering the dramatic changes medicine and health care have undergone during the past 7 1/2 decades.
Through advances in diagnosing disease, surgical procedures, medications and technology — as well as growing challenges facing hospitals nationwide — Sampson Regional has continued to fulfill the same basic purpose, Wright maintained: caring for its neighbors.
“Seventy-five years is really an extraordinary period when you think about it for any organization,” he told those gathered.
Over those years, Wright noted, generations of Sampson County families have encountered the hospital during some of the most important moments of their lives, from births and medical emergencies to surgeries, treatments and difficult losses.
“That’s what makes a community hospital so special,” he stressed. “Sampson Regional isn’t simply located in a community. You are part of the community.”
That relationship, Wright continued, cannot be measured solely through buildings, technology or services, but ultimately through the trust established between a hospital and the people it serves.
He also pointed to Sampson Regional’s continued status as an independent, community-based rural hospital, something increasingly uncommon in health care.
Wright credited strong leadership, physicians, employees, governance and community support with allowing the organization to adapt without losing sight of its mission.
“The organizations that endure aren’t those that refuse to change,” Wright emphasized. “They’re the organizations that know how to change without losing sight of who they are.”
Presenting the AHA recognition, Wright characterized Sampson Regional as “nationally connected and locally committed,” thanking the hospital for its 75 years of membership and continued service to Sampson County.
Sampson Regional CEO and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shawn Howerton then turned the focus toward what has been accomplished during the anniversary year itself, noting that while employees were celebrating the past, they were simultaneously laying groundwork for the hospital’s future.
Among those investments was the implementation of MEDITECH Expanse, an electronic health record platform Howerton said positions the hospital for the years ahead.
The hospital has also recruited five family physicians to the community, Howerton reported, with four beginning during September. A nurse practitioner is expected to join the organization by the end of the month, further expanding the medical center’s provider network.
Major investments have also been made in diagnostic technology.
Howerton said Sampson Regional has nearly completed the first phase of its radiology technology upgrade project, including replacement of its CT scanner, the addition of a new nuclear medicine camera and plans for a new X-ray room at the hospital within the coming weeks.
The second phase is already being planned, with a new CT scanner and MRI expected at the hospital’s Outpatient Diagnostics Center within the next six months.
“As we celebrated, we also made the foundation for the future,” Howerton told employees, crediting them for making those investments and continued growth possible. “You guys come to work every day. You care for the community. You give of yourselves, your family gives so that you can be here, and none of that is possible without you.”
Amber Halstead, vice president of Business Development, closed the ceremony by revealing how the hospital intends to preserve a snapshot of that work for another generation.
The 75th anniversary time capsule will be opened in 2050, when Sampson Regional reaches its centennial.
Halstead explained that assembling it proved more difficult than organizers initially anticipated because the committee faced a deceptively simple question: How do you capture an entire hospital, workforce and community at one moment in time?
Instead of searching for one object to represent Sampson Regional, the committee assembled pieces depicting what everyday life was like at the medical center during its 75th year.
Among the contents are samples of daily flash reports and safety huddles, organizational statistics and demographics, information about common surgical procedures, charges and reimbursements, and snapshots of the cost of living, popular culture and entertainment in 2026.
The capsule also contains copies of hospital licenses and certificates, an organizational chart, medical staff and resident directories, the Board of Trustees roster, photographs, business cards, employee identification badges, marketing materials and photographs of the hospital campus.
News stories documenting Sampson Regional and the community are included alongside materials chronicling the hospital’s migration to MEDITECH Expanse, a web-based electronic health record platform.
Other items offer a lighter glimpse of the era, including a patient information guide, a 75th anniversary T-shirt, a commemorative first-pitch baseball jersey and anniversary ornament.
Some of the most meaningful contents, Halstead said, may be the personal ones.
During National Hospital Week, employees prepared “day in the life” cards describing what it was like to work at Sampson Regional in 2026. Employees and community members also submitted reflections intended for those who will inherit the organization, while current senior leaders prepared a letter addressed to the hospital’s leadership of 2050.
“Ultimately, this capsule is not about the documents. It’s not about the photographs, and it’s not about the artifacts,” Halstead reflected. “It’s about the people.”
Those people, she said, include generations of employees, physicians, trustees, volunteers, donors and community members who have contributed to the hospital during its history.
The capsule will not be buried but instead kept in a protected location. A shadow box will serve as a visible representation of the capsule and provide future hospital leaders with instructions for locating and opening it when the centennial arrives.
When that happens 24 years from now, Halstead said she hopes those opening it will be surprised by what has changed — and perhaps by what has not.
“Most of all, we hope they recognize something that really doesn’t change,” she shared. “Sampson Regional is a hospital built around people. It is a hospital built around community, and it’s a hospital built to serve both.”
With that, a celebration that began last October came to its official close, leaving the next chapter of Sampson Regional’s history to be written.
“Today, we close the chapter on our 75th anniversary,” Halstead said. “We leave something behind for the people who will celebrate the 100th.”