David Pope, president and chief executive of the Scotland Health Care System, is the recipient of a statewide award for his commitment to improving rural health.
Pope received North Carolina’s Community Star award, the state Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Rural Health announced Thursday, National Rural Health Day.
With 43 locations, Scotland Health provides emergency and primary care, cancer treatment, hospice, and other services across Scotland and Robeson counties, and in Bennettsville, South Carolina.
“Despite facing some of the state’s most challenging social drivers of health, we consistently provide a broader and deeper range of clinical services than many systems,” Pope told the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health, which puts on the awards across the country. “We have deliberately reached out to our community with nurse navigators, community paramedics, and community health workers who create trusting relationships with the patients they serve.”
Scotland County is one of the least healthy counties in the state, according to County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. County residents have an average life expectancy that is about seven years lower than the statewide average, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Pope previously told the Border Belt Independent that community-based programs, including the Scotland Health-at-Home program he helped create, are crucial because they connect patients with preventative care and community resources and limit emergency department visits.
Pope has led Scotland Health for two years. He previously served four years as senior vice president and chief operating officer. During Pope’s tenure, Scotland Health partnered with Richmond Community College to create a surgical technician program. The health system provides tuition assistance and stipends to students.
The health system also created the Legacy Nurse Scholarship Program, which covers the cost of tuition and books for working nurses who continue their education.
“Beyond health care, Dr. Pope’s leadership has touched every corner of his community,” Maggie Sauer, director of the state’s Office of Rural Health, said in a press release on Thursday. “His work exemplifies how the power of rural drives resilience, creativity, and connection—qualities that define this year’s National Rural Health Day theme, ‘Rural Rising.’”
Pope is always willing to listen to ideas from staff, according to several people who previously spoke with the BBI.
And he helps implement those ideas, according to a statement shared with the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. Several years ago, a staff member proposed using a former Walgreens building in Laurinburg as a new clinic. The building is now the health system’s Laurinburg Family Practice, providing primary and urgent care and pharmacy and medical imaging services.
Pope said he was inspired to enter rural health care by Dr. Billy Blakeney, who died in 2023. Blakeney was one of the only physicians in Pageland, South Carolina, when Pope’s parents lived there.
“His commitment to ensuring rural people didn’t settle for second best left a lasting impression,” Pope told the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. “I carry that same way of thinking in my bones. The people that I care about the most live in rural areas—how can I not use the opportunities that I’ve been blessed with to improve their lives?”
Pope is among 47 other people and organizations across the country recognized for their efforts to improve rural health this year. States select a single recipient of the Community Star award who is “going above and beyond to improve rural health,” according to the National Rural Health Day website.
National Rural Health Day has been celebrated on the third Thursday of November since 2011. Health care workers and organizations in North Carolina have received five Community Star awards since National Rural Health Day first awarded them in 2015. Besides Pope, there have been two awardees from southeastern North Carolina—Dr. Karen Smith, a family physician in Raeford, and William Massengill, former CEO of Benson Health.