Four months to the day since starting as president and chief executive officer at Asante, Tom Gessel surely could not have anticipated nor foreseen where the hospital and healthcare organization he’d been selected to lead suddenly would find itself.

We certainly didn’t.

But yet, here we are.

In recent weeks, Medford-based Asante’s largest hospital campus, Rogue Regional Medical Center, is at the center of the one-two punches of an active police investigation into allegations of alleged drug diversion and potential patient deaths and injuries, along with revelations newly-reported about a whistleblower lawsuit claiming a medicare fraudulent billing scheme — litigation which was recently and quietly settled by hospital-system management.

It is a boon to the Rogue Valley and Southern Oregon to be home to not just one, but two powerhouse healthcare and hospital systems: Providence’s Medford Medical Center and Asante’s network of hospitals in Grants Pass, Ashland and Medford, and nearly four-dozen clinics across the region.

For Providence, it’s recognition as one of the nation’s best maternity centers and awards for excellence in everything from stroke care to joint replacement and cancer surgery. For Asante, it’s recognition for 10 years in a row as one of the 15 best health systems in the nation, a feat achieved nowhere else in Oregon or Washington.

For residents, the achievements and accolades for both systems are part of what sets Southern Oregon apart as a world-class regional hub for enviable healthcare facilities and services. Health systems like Providence and Asante are economic powerhouses for the entire region, creating thousands of jobs, improving quality health outcomes, drawing in retirees and new residents to the area, attracted to good access to good healthcare.

For the roughly 6,400 employees of Asante, the news and revelations in recent weeks must be wrenching. We know these employees as our neighbors and family, our friends and our trusted caregivers.

We know they must be reeling from the alleged breakdowns in trust and potential harm inflicted on those whose lives were impacted. We know these questions and allegations into a few are in no way a reflection on the values and compassion demonstrated by the majority within Asante.

We need Asante to be OK. It’s not right now, but there is a pathway to get back there.

We need our nurses and doctors and staff to trust they’re working in a trustworthy healthcare company and hospital system. We need Asante to regain the reputation earned over years as one of the best of its kind in the nation.

We need excellent healthcare systems locally for the benefits it brings to the health of our regional economy and to the health and quality of life for those who live here.

We need Asante to be OK, and we need the work to regain trust to start now.