Mark Cain, Tennova LaFollette Medical Center CEO, speaks at Rotary

He is in his 43rd year in hospital administration

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Campbell County Rotarians were addressed by Tennova LaFollette Medical Center CEO and fellow Rotarian Mark Cain at Tuesday’s Rotary Club luncheon held at the LaFollette Methodist Church.

Cain went over his life and how he wound up in hospital management. He is in his 43rd year in hospital administration.

When Cain was in third grade, his dad went into the ministry and after that they “lived a lot of places”.

“When I was in high school, dad asked me what I was going to do with myself. He made the offer, you tell me what you might be interested in, and I will see what I can do,” Cain said.

“I spent four days with astrophysicists at NASA, and that was a phenomenal experience. Then I spent a day with a family doctor, and when I walked out of there, dad asked what I thought. A day with a family doctor was one of the worst days of my life,” Cain said.

He said he and his dad hadn’t walked a hundred feet and his dad introduced him to Ed Boston, CEO of a huge Huntsville, Alabama, hospital.

“So, we talked and he said if you want to impact people become a hospital administrator … and that’s instantly what I wanted to do. I began telling people I wanted to be a hospital administrator before I even knew what it was all about,” Cain said.

Cain went to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He went to college, majored in business and majored in accounting for a day. He said he immediately changed that to management.

According to Cain, God placed people in his life to lead him on his path to hospital administration from the very beginning.

“Dad knowing Mr. Boston was God acting in my life. I would not have known anything about that job without that experience,” Cain said.

He has worked at hospitals all over including South Florida, South Carolina, Lebanon, Tennessee, Sparta, Tennessee. Arkansas, Oklahoma, but most of his work and time has been in Tennessee, his home state.

“I decided I wanted to stay in rural health care. I have been in LaFollette for 15 years and we love it. In 43 years, it’s just about caring for people, that’s the bottom line,” Cain said.

To him, the most rewarding part of his job came recently while at the hospital here in LaFollette,

“Not long ago an older lady came up to me in the lobby, and she gave me a hug; She said, ‘most of my life I have had to go somewhere else to have someone take care of me and now I get to be here in my hometown and have people care about me’ that moment was one of the most rewarding of my career,” Cain said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-01/08/2026-6AM)