CEO Introduction

West Valley Medical Center - August 01, 2017

Betsy Hunsicker
CEO

It’s almost rodeo time! I hope to see you at our annual Medical Staff Social on August 17. We will start at 5:30 p.m. with a casual cookout at The College of Idaho Quad and then head over to Power of Pink Night at the Rodeo! Please RSVP to Karen Baese at karen.baese@hcahealthcare.com by August 10.

West Valley has had some great recognition as of late. Most recent were the HCA Awards of Distinction. These awards include the Frist Humanitarian Awards, the Innovators Award, and the Nursing Excellence Award. Nominations come from every facility throughout the organization with two finalists and one winner in each category. We were proud to have Denise Dixon, RN, recognized in 2016 as a finalist for the Nursing Excellence Award. This year, Dr. Banta was recognized for his service to orphaned children in Mexico and around the world. Dr. Banta was one of three national finalists for the Frist Humanitarian Award, which was a very proud moment for one of our own to receive that kind of recognition!

However, perhaps most exciting was the fact that the National Innovators Award went to our own Fred Webster and the OR team of Shawn Lindsay, Tracy Phillips, Catherine Taiji, and Karen Miracle. Their innovation was a system created to help facilitate OR scheduling and coordinating that patient across Pre-Admission Testing, Pre-Op Education, Financial Counseling, Interpretive Services, and other areas that need to be in the loop to ensure all goes smoothly leading up to surgery. Their innovation, although simple, was recognized for the positive impact it had on staff, patients, and our surgeons and their office staff. Fred and I had the incredible honor to go to Nashville to receive this award and meet all the other Awards of Distinction recipients for 2017.

Another amazing distinction is our Best Places to Work selection by Modern Healthcare. Modern Healthcare surveys employees across healthcare organizations nationwide and, based on those results and information about benefits and work systems, they select the 100 Best Places to Work. This is our 4th year earning this honor. We do not know our ranking in the top 100 but will find out at the end of September!

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to virtually introduce you to our new PGY2 residents. Our residents are affiliated with Family Medicine Residency of Idaho (FMRI) and this is a shared effort between FMRI, West Valley, and Saint Alphonsus Medical Group. Residents in the Caldwell Rural Training Track spend their first year in Boise and their second and third year in Caldwell. Please join me in welcoming Bill Brandenburg, MD, Megan Sandmann, MD, and Benjamin Stockton, MD, to our West Valley family.