Woodward, Okla. — Live music in a hospital?

That’s one of the things Woodward Regional Hospital’s new Chief Executive Officer Dave Wallace would like to integrate into the health facility’s regimen.

“Music has amazing healing properties, and we don’t have enough of it in healthcare,” Wallace said in an interview with The News Monday. “I myself have a passion for music and have participated in harmony singing.”

Wallace said all types of music can benefit the hospital environment.

But because Monday was his first day in his new position, he doesn’t yet have anything specifically planned musically for the hospital.

“I will have more on that later, as I figure out how we can make that happen,” Wallace said.

While he enjoys music’s soothing quality, Wallace also is well versed in the specifics of healthcare administration, having served in that capacity for 18 years.

After a wide range of experience with hospitals of varying sizes, he said he prefers hospitals the size of Woodward Regional Hospital, which is licensed for 87 beds.

“While (in graduate school at) Ohio State University, I spent 3 months at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City,” he said. “It had 1,200 beds -- 300 were psych beds and 100 were prison beds. It was part of my training in administrative healthcare.”

“I got very good experience (there) on what can be done with very little money, but I also learned I didn’t want to be in a city like that,” Wallace said.

Though he also worked briefly in healthcare administration in Sacramento, Calif., Wallace said he found his niche in communities of  around 16,000 people, such as Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where he served as assistant administrator at Knox Community Hospital from 1993 to 2998.  Most recently, he served for 4 years as chief operations officer for the Medical Center of Southeastern Oklahoma in Durant, which also has a population of around 16,000.  In fact, he is moving to Woodward from Durant.

Although Woodward has a slightly smaller population around 13,000, Wallace said he is comfortable with smaller cities.

“I grew up in a rural environment and am comfortable with what Woodward has to offer,” he said. “Of course, I like to travel to the city to visit, but I love to turn on the radio to a city station and be leaving for my destination at the start of the traffic report and be at my destination before the traffic report ends.”

“They’re talking about being tied up on a freeway, and I’m thinking, I’m already at work,” Wallace said.

Wallace said he knew in 9th grade that he would go into hospital administration after taking an aptitude test and learning he would be good in that field.

“My mother was a nurse, and my father was an engineer who ran the business side of things, starting his own firm, so that influenced my abilities, and hospital administration is a balance between the 2,” Wallace said.

Wallace has bachelor's degrees in community health and business administration from Fresno State University in California (1989) and a master’s degree in health administration from Ohio State (1990).

“It’s a great privilege to be in this industry, because we are called to take care of those whose lives have been torn apart by disease or injury,” he said.

Wallace and his wife, Kelly, have 3 children -- Brianna, 13, Madison, 12 and Daniel, 10.

“They’re moving here this week and are excited to be starting school here in Woodward,” he said.

Wallace said that like his children, he also is excited to be in the community.

“I came to Woodward because I thought it was a great opportunity to join a team of people who were starting to make a lot of  progress toward  what they want (Woodward Regional Hospital) to be,” he said, and noted, the “goal of a community hospital is to provide quality healthcare close to home and become the choice of anything healthcare related.”