An Exciting Night at the Leaders in Health Care Awards
Last Thursday, Seattle Business magazine hosted a gala at Bell Harbor International Conference Center for their 2018 Leaders in Health Care Awards. It was an exciting and inspiring evening, and I was reminded that we are truly fortunate to be in a region with such outstanding health care leaders.
One of those leaders, Dr. Peter Rutherford, CEO of Confluence Health in Wenatchee and Board Member of the Alliance, was awarded the Outstanding Medical Center/Hospital Executive Outside of Puget Sound Gold Award.
In accepting his award, Pete delivered a moving and motivational recount of his role as a health care leader and why he does this work. Pete offered that he gets up every day, honored to do the work he does, and with great humility and pride declared, “because we get to do this.”
Pete struck a deep emotional cord with the audience in his recount of care he provided to a patient that extended his life by 15 years and described how much the “thank you” from the patient’s wife meant to him. His comments literally brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience.
Pete was supported by three tables of cheering Confluence Health leaders and many other admirers in the audience. Our congratulations to Dr. Rutherford and we are proud to have him on our Board.
2018 Patient Experience Award
The Alliance is also thrilled that Seattle Business used our recent Patient Experience Report to honor the highest-performing medical groups with the 2018 Patient Experience Award. While we reported on 114 primary care medical groups and 351 clinics across the state, only four organizations, EvergreenHealth, Astria Health Center, Familycare of Kent, and Sequim Medical Associates scored better than average in every category in our survey. Our thanks to Seattle Business for partnering with us on this award, and kudos to these organizations for their performance!