Show appreciation to doctors this week

In 1991, President George Bush officially designated March 30 as National Doctor's Day. Since that time we have set aside this day to recognize the men and women who have accepted the special calling of the medical vocation. These professionals serve in a great variety of settings - community clinics, urban hospitals, academic research laboratories, health system leadership, government and numerous others - but with a common goal of ensuring prevention and treatment of disease and disability and improving quality of life.

We are blessed at Samaritan Healthcare to be served by 125 physicians in a variety of specialties. Most of these physicians practice their profession at Confluence Health, Moses Lake Community Health Center, and Samaritan Clinics but we have independent physicians and smaller physician groups serving our community as well. This number of physicians is matched by "virtual relationships" with physician consultants that support our work in a variety of specialties. We look forward to strengthening the breadth and depth of our physician specialty support over time and ask our communities support to make this vision a reality.

We are also privileged to have a number of non-physician healthcare providers serving patients locally and we choose to extend our National Doctor's Day recognition to these professionals. The range of professionals in our region who support quality healthcare services is growing, adding to the quality of life for all.

Please join me in recognizing our physicians on National Doctor's Day and in thanking them and our other health care professionals for their contribution to our community!