Piedmont Newton Hospital’s medical director said he did the occasional talk to a civic group before March 2020.

Then the pandemic hit and hospital officials have felt the need to “reach out to the public” as much as possible with information about COVID-19 and the ways it is transmitted, said Dr. Norris Little.

“The pandemic has offered an opportunity to reach out to the public in a way that we, as a hospital, really have not historically done,” Little said.

“I think that’s been a great thing, actually. It’s really improved our ties with the community, both in terms of the business community and the community at large, our government — all those areas I think we have much closer ties than we did prior to the pandemic,” Little said.

Little practiced medicine for more than 30 years in Covington. His patients knew him as an Internal Medicine specialist before he began his current job as the hospital’s medical director. 

But he was not a fixture at civic club and governmental meetings until the pandemic hit.

He said hospital officials saw the need in the community for useful and accurate information about COVID-19 and what the hospital was doing to respond to the pandemic, he said.

“There were people who were afraid to come to the hospital so we saw the need to do education around COVID and to continue to do so around the pandemic because things were always changing,” he said

“There was new information. The situation at the hospital would change. So, we together here just made a concerted effort to reach out to the community through opportunities that we could find.”

Little earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1981. 

He began working as a physician in Covington in the Newton Medical Associates clinic in 1984 at a time when few primary care physicians operated in Covington, he said.

“I have a long-term involvement in our community and actively kind of worked to make Newton County a good place to be,” he said.

After decades as a private care physician including serving as chief of staff, and helping raise his family in Newton County, Little began work as the hospital’s chief medical officer in 2016 — a year after Piedmont Health Systems acquired the former Newton Medical Center.

He and other hospital officials now make a “concerted effort to find opportunities” to spread the word about the coronavirus, including inviting community leaders to the hospital to see the virus’ effect firsthand.

For example, a pastor who understands the impact and need for safety measures can inform a congregation, he said.

Little said he believes the medical professionals at Piedmont Newton have been “heroes” during the pandemic because of the effort and professionalism they have shown during the virus’s surges.

“In my mind they are,” he said.