2012 Lifetime Achievement Award: Rick Linneweh, CEO, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital

Rick Linneweh
President and CEO
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital

Rick Linneweh has learned in the past 40 years that one can do a lot of transitioning in the same location. He began working at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital as assistant administrator. Since becoming CEO in 1977, he has overseen a tripling of the size of the organization.

Linneweh was the runaway choice of our judges for the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, which cited his commitment to doing the unglamorous work that meets the needs of his region. Just as important, he has been able to bring the community together to support those efforts.

Although it serves a largely rural community, Yakima Valley Memorial struggles with the same challenges as a public urban facility. It sees a high proportion of Medicaid and Medicare clients and acts as the safety-net hospital for many high-risk patients. Memorial also has underwritten many services that support the regions medical practices, prodding public and private partners to support worthy efforts. Had we not stepped in, Linneweh notes, Yakima would be frankly decimated in its medical community.

Among those efforts, the establishment of the Childrens Village is what Linneweh calls the bright candle in the celebration cake of his career. This outpatient center for children with special health care or developmental needs opened 15 years ago with support from the Memorial Foundation, the states EPIC program and Yakima Valley Farm Workers. It provides integrated services to promote health, not just cures, and includes clinics for autism spectrum disorder, speech therapy and cleft palate.

Memorial Hospital has also expanded to include facilities for mammography, cancer care, pain relief and occupational rehabilitation. Linneweh and his board are engaged in a $10 million campaign to build a new hospice facility as well as to expand the Childrens Village. The question, Linneweh says, is: Do we want to be just a hospital, or a true health care provider? His answer is evident every day.