Message from the CEO

Group Visit Recap

Welcome to the second quarterly edition of our new Physician Newsletter. As mentioned last time, you can expect to see these quarterly timed as close to the Quarterly Business meeting as possible.

Since the last edition we had a couple exciting visitors. QRS ‰лв the internal HCA quality surveyors ‰лв visited and we learned a lot and had several opportunities for improvement, as usual. We feel well positioned for our Joint Commission survey coming up later this year. We also had a visit from our Group/Corporate Leadership at the beginning of June. Bill Rutherford, Chuck Hall and Mike Marks visited us from Nashville along with our Salt Lake City-based division leadership. That group was enthusiastic about the great things going on here at West Valley and optimistic about the future. Hopefully we can keep that capital rolling!

Physician Satisfaction Survey Results

Thank you to those who took our physician satisfaction survey conducted over the past several months. We had more than 75 physicians provide their feedback.

We were pleased with the positive trends you indicated in nearly every area of the survey. We were particularly excited to see the improved perception of nursing and Patient Safety and hope to continue building upon this progress so that we can have the highest quality hospital that is a place you enjoy practicing.

ED & Hospitalist Program Changes

As you know we transitioned our ED coverage to TeamHealth mid-March. We are slowly bringing in the ‰лЯcore‰л group of physicians and advanced practice providers who will be our team of West Valley docs. Dr. Benjamin Gold and Dr. Trevor Grubbs are two of our permanent providers ‰лв both have been working in the ED regularly. Dr. Brian Moss started July 18th and Dr. Gage Dixon is arriving in August. All are board certified ED physicians with extensive ED experience. Additionally, we have hired on most of the advanced practice providers in our ED core group ‰лв Andrew Ryan, PA; Jen Greene, NP; Christian Gelok, NP, Slade Thacker, NP and Rebecca Guy, NP come to us with extensive experience both in and out of the ED setting. Brett Bemis, PA, worked his way through physician assistant school as a scribe for IEP in our ED. Rebecca and Slade also practice in the outpatient setting in our community. We continue to recruit for additional providers with the ultimate goal to get to eight or nine permanent MD providers. We are fortunate that Dr. Jon Baugh and several of the other core interim providers will continue to staff our ED consistently until we are fully staffed.

The transition has not been without issue and we appreciate your patience and your feedback as we work through this change. Dr. Brian Moss will be the facility medical director. Many of you may remember Dr. Moss when he was here several years ago working with IEP. Dr. Moss is a Boise native and he is bringing his wife and new baby back ‰лЯhome‰л with him to West Valley! Once Dr. Moss is at least slightly settled in, we will get him out to meet with key ED consultants to better understand how our ED can best support you and your patients.

In addition to ED services, TeamHealth began managing our hospitalist service effective August 1. This change is an effort to smooth the transition from ED to hospitalist, as well as have some common administrative support for both programs. The hospitalist service will maintain the same coverage with 24/7 in-house physician staffing. Moving forward, we will see many of the same faces ‰лв Dr. Augustus, Dr. Slade, Bonnie Hoewing NP and Alma Parajuli NP. Dr. Schulte will continue to work an abbreviated schedule as she transitions to St. Luke‰лЊs Nampa (a decision she made before changing hospitalist groups), and we are grateful to have continued part-time help from Dr. Koga, Dr. Christensen and Dr. Roger Wyatt. Dr. Michael Mallea will be joining us as a regular hospitalist in October. And we will continue to recruit for any remaining positions. We will continue to have 24/7 in-house hospitalist coverage.

Annual Medical Staff Social

Please bring your family and join us August 18 at The College of Idaho quad for our Medical Staff Social. This annual event is an opportunity for us to say thank you for your continued support and partnership in caring for our community. After dinner, we‰лЊll all head to Power of Pink Night at the Caldwell Night Rodeo, the proceeds of which benefit our mammogram screening program for underinsured women. Tickets to the rodeo are complimentary for you and your family. Please join us for this wonderful annual event!

What: Medical Staff Social and Power of Pink Night at the Caldwell Night Rodeo

When: Thursday, August 18

5:30pm, dinner at The College of Idaho quad

7:30pm, rodeo at the Caldwell Night Rodeo grounds

Please RSVP to Karen Baese to reserve dinner and rodeo tickets for your family. And thank you again for all that you do!

Betsy Hunsicker
betsy.hunsicker@hcahealthcare.com
(208) 455-3718