MONTPELIER — Bear Lake Memorial Hospital CEO Arel Hunt chose a career in health care leadership to make a difference.

A Star Valley, Wyoming, native, Hunt said he knows what it takes to breathe heart and soul into a small community, starting with the hospital that cares for its residents. He has already achieved success in bringing positive change to the hospital he oversees, recruiting several new doctors and expanding Bear Lake Memorial's facilities.

Small communities don’t thrive on change and keeping up with the times as much as they do on taking care of people, Hunt said.

Part of that care means bringing what the community needs to the local hospital.

Hunt said he has made it his mission for Bear Lake Memorial to deliver on those needs.

He has recently recruited many new health care providers at Bear Lake Memorial who are ready to provide much needed care to the people of Bear Lake County and the surrounding region.

Most of these new providers already once called the Bear Lake area home or had local ties, Hunt said.

Many of these new providers are at a time in their careers where they have developed areas of expertise and now have taken the opportunity to come back to their roots and raise their own families in the small town environment where they grew up.

Hunt became Bear Lake Memorial's CEO in July of 2022 after working as the hospital's HR director since June of 2021.

He joined Bear Lake Memorial Hospital with an impressive medical administration background. A background that started in the Army National Guard when he was just a junior in high school. His pathway for hospital administration was carefully set for him with the military route he chose.

He said he had military leaders who modeled good and bad behaviors. By experiencing the good and the bad, Hunt said he’s had the opportunity to see what makes good leaders, which led him to build his own methods to grow and build successful health care teams.

Just before moving to Montpelier, he had finished serving as the National Guard's Wyoming area medical commander. Hunt moved his way up the ranks working in various administrative roles, giving him a unique outlook from all angles.

Hunt said he doesn’t want to lead with charge but lead with example and guidance. He wants Bear Lake Memorial's department heads to lead with confidence and include all hospital staff in decisions.

“I can’t create a team environment with me ordering people around," Hunt said. "We have a saying here, 'We are they.' We don’t say things like 'They did that' or 'It was their fault.' We are they. We are a team. Always. We are here for the community. We have a vision for being known as the most caring hospital — where you are a name, not a number.”

Hunt said he knew the hospital needed to bring in health care providers who would meet the needs and lifestyle of the community.

He said the hospital's objective is how do we grow, keep the small town lifestyle culture and still keep up with the health care industry? Sometimes making these decisions means they go against the grain of the industry’s popular ideas, he said.

Part of Hunt's recruiting goal was to restructure the emergency room and clinic physicians.

He's brought on board an impressive lineup of new doctors at Bear Lake Memorial in recent months including Dr. Brandon Bomsta, the new ER medical director; Dr. Brian Retherford, OB-GYN; and Dr. Houston Reynolds, a family practice physician.

This is in addition to Bear Lake Memorial's current roster of respected medical providers including Dr. Peter Crane, Dr. Trevor Jacobson, Dr. Khristina Meissner and Dr. Kerry Jepsen.

Hunt shares that Bear Lake Memorial has some big projects coming up as well.

Bear Lake Memorial's on-site urgent care will soon be remodeled and the hospital will be opening a new urgent care location and family practice in Garden City, Utah, in the fall.

In addition Bear Lake Memorial has recently purchased land in Montpelier to build clinic offices which will open up space in the hospital for the growing needs of outpatient surgery. Outpatient surgery is growing rapidly and requires some more space of its own, Hunt said.

All of this is on top of the renovations recently completed at the hospital.

Hunt wants everyone to know that Bear Lake Memorial is the place to go for personalized small town health care.

He encourages area residents to stay local for their health care needs with the confidence that they will get the best care possible at Bear Lake Memorial with little to no ER wait times and plenty of physicians available with many specialty care options.