Samaritan Healthcare boards look back at growth
Dennis Kearns, chief of staff at Samaritan Hospital, tells the audience about his 17 years as a member of the medical staff during the annual meeting of the Samaritan Healthcare Board of Commissioners and Foundation Board of Directors Monday evening.
Future looks bright for 'moving and shaking' community
Members of the Samaritan Healthcare Board of Commissioners and Foundation Board of Directors took a trip down memory lane Monday evening.
Memories of the past were on the agenda for the hour long annual meeting, held on the fourth floor of Samaritan Hospital.
Foundation director Dave Campbell said that the idea for the meeting came from a 2000 recognition pioneer physicians in the community.
"What was really interesting and fascinating was listening to (the doctors) talk about health care in the old days," Campbell said, recalling stories about driving women about to deliver babies in the back of a station wagon to the Ephrata hospital at about 90 to 95 miles per hour, in the days before Moses Lake had a hospital and the highway to Ephrata was "kind of a scary proposition."
Campbell said that those recollections were the stepping stone for the evening, in which they would be looking back 12 to 23 years with four different staff members at the immense changes made in health care.
Board chair Tom Frick, a member of the board for 12 years, delivered the commissioner's perspective, touching upon the building of several buildings to house physicians and how those led to the remodeling and expansion of Samaritan Hospital, allowing the hospital to be dedicated to acute care.
Chief operating officer Lynn Bales, an employee for 23 years, delivered the management perspective, recalling that at her job interview at the hospital, she was interviewed in one room, only to walk to it later and find it completely stripped clear. The administrator had been moved into a new office, as they were nearing the end of a renovation.
"He said, 'You know what? We're a moving and shaking place,'" Bales recalled. "I thought, you know what, I guess if they're a moving and shaking place, that's where I want to be."
Bales said that in her 23 years, the length of a hospital stay had shortened, and the organization, integration and level of care had improved. Today, she said, the services provided are expected to equal those available in Spokane and Wenatchee.
"I still think we're a moving and shaking place," she said.
Dr. Dennis Kearns, chief of staff, a 17-year member of the medical staff, offered his perspective, recalling growing up in the Columbia Basin area, past co-workers, staff members and administrators and marveling at the changes made in the technology available.
Those changes include the offering of caesarean sections beginning in the summer, he said.
Karen Wagner, a 20-year board member, opened by telling the audience of her grandfather's cataract surgery 44 years ago.
"We were told that Grandpa had to lay very very still, we were told he would probably have sandbags around his head, and we were told that he would probably be in the hospital about a week," she remembered. "Three years ago, my dad had cataract surgery. I brought him in the hospital, and in six hours we were on our way home. Admittedly, the surgery slowed him down a little bit, but he was 86 years old then, and I guess that slowdown was to be expected. So much has changed."
A constant at Samaritan Healthcare has been the professional, nurturing and careful care, Wagner said. Foundation programs include HUGS, providing co-pay for indigent discharge persons, mammography support and the scholarship program for Samaritan staff.
"Will we ever be done?" she asked. "I hope not, and I don't think so."
Business development director Scott Campbell then addressed the future. He said that in order to continue the journey to excellence, they formed a strategic plan for the organization that utilizes the assets already in place, focuses on the core services and continues to grow the things that are done well.
The reworked vision statement out of that strategic plan, he said, is to be the best rural hospital district in America, and is symbolized by the five pillars in the lobby of the hospital, representing best employees, best service, best quality, financial success and growth.
Guest speaker Terry Brewer, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council, spoke of the importance of having a good health care system when it comes to recruiting new projects to Moses Lake.
The meeting concluded with a special announcement from commissioner and Foundation Board chair Mike Bolander of a bequest of $100,000 from the estate of Marianne Allison, half of which would go to a new state of the art CT scanner and the other half to go towards the cost of a new endoscopy suite.