If you get sick or need surgery in my hometown of Conway, Arkansas, you would be truly blessed, as we have two world-class hospitals. We have Conway Regional Medical Center that started in 1921 and has been the primary care and surgery hospital for these many years. We also have a newcomer to our community for less than 10 years, Baptist Health Medical Center. Baptist is located alongside Interstate 40 and is so big and impressive that it is larger than some of the towns in our state. You know the kind where the “welcome” and “come back” signs are on the same post.

I might add that Baptist Health is part of the largest chain of hospitals in our state, with five locations and the flagship location in Little Rock. I am very familiar with this hospital, as I had triple heart bypass surgery there more than 40 years ago. I am still here, so I guess they did a good job. All kidding aside, the quality of the hospital in every community of any size in America is very important, as it is a life-or-death issue for many people.

The reason I decided to do this column is because my wife Janis had knee replacement surgery several weeks ago. Because her doctor had his practice at Conway Regional, this is where we went. He did a wonderful job and we could not have been more impressed with the quality of care at Conway Regional than if we had gone to any other hospital in the country. While most people would not have given it another thought, because good customer service is vital to the success of any organization or business, I wanted to focus on this for the remainder of our visit today.

I might add, because I know the people there, Baptist Health would have done the same great job for her. Most communities do not have two hospitals unless they are large enough to support them. But there is one element that makes a world of difference, and that is competition. When you have two hospitals competing for the same business, the quality of the service you receive is just naturally going to get better.

For us, at 6 o’clock in the morning, it started at the “check-in” desk with a bright, sunny smile and a helpful, positive attitude. Janis’ surgery required an overnight stay, and I had the pleasure of sleeping in one of those oversized chairs that made into a bed. I might add everyone and his brother had on one of those masks we have been wearing for the past several months. If you were a visitor, you either had to go out or go to the ground-floor cafeteria if you wanted to have something to eat. You were not allowed to eat your food there but had to take it with you and find a place where you could eat it.

Something that happened in the cafeteria was most unusual, and I had never had it happen anywhere else before. When I got ready to check out at the cash register, the lady in front of me, whose uniform told me that she was a hospital employee, paid for my food. As you may know, this is called “paying it forward,” which is a wonderful practice, as kindness is something of which we need a lot more. Well, it happened again on another trip to the cafeteria — still another hospital employee also paid it forward. Not to be outdone, the day we checked out and I was at the cafeteria, I beat her to the punch and paid it forward for the lady behind me.

You know, competition is a wonderful thing for any business or organization. A couple of days after we got home, a hospital employee called to see if we needed anything.

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(For a personally signed copy of my new book ‘Your Future Begins Today’ send $20 — includes postage & handling — to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)