March 2010

Outstanding Health Care Professional James Bergman has fully subscribed to the electronic age ofmedicine. Bergman, a family practice physician at Group HealthCooperative’s Factoria Medical Center, now handles the bulk of his patients’care via e-mail and telephone. The result? More contact with more patients.More give and take. More validation for the patients-all of which allowspatients to…

Employer Achievement in Wellness Programs Since its inception in 2006, the employee wellness programhas become a symbol of an emerging new culture in American businesses. AtUnited General Hospital, the wellness program has become a source of realimprovement, where participating employees eat better, show less stress andreduce their cholesterol levels. Even United General’s CEO, Greg Reed,…

Outstanding Achievement and Innovation in Life Sciences As daylight broke, Leroy Hood floated gently along the Nileoutside Cairo, in the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. It’s a fitting locale for a man of discovery who was takinga week off during the first few days of a new decade. Hood is the…

Lifetime Achievement Award Aubrey Davis is a name that for many Washingtonians conjuresfar-reaching transportation projects, thoughtful politics and massive endeavorsin how health care is delivered in the Evergreen State. Indeed, for most of his adult life, Davis has lived inservice to the community. He has been mayor and city councilman of MercerIsland and is largely…

Outstanding Health Care Executive (Puget Sound Region): Tie Doctors, administrators, nurses, you name it. They were nothappy when their workplace, Puyallup-based Good Samaritan Hospital, was takenover by Tacoma’s MultiCare Health System. Newly appointed CEO John Long had aHerculean task ahead of him. How was he to change the downtrodden culture within anoverextended organization and make…

Outstanding Health Care Executive (Beyond Puget Sound) When Tom Fritz came to Inland Northwest Health Services, theSpokane-based organization was three years old and already had been through acouple of CEOs. In Fritz, however, INHS found the leader who would make it aregional force in health care services-as well as a national leader in healthcare information…

Improving the quality of health care and reducing the costborne by both businesses and consumers has long been an elusive goal.Washington state, however, has been a leader in recent years. While we taketechnology more or less for granted in the Evergreen State, we have also becomemore innovative when it comes to delivering care in an…