• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Contact Us
  • Pay My Bill
  • Patient Portal
  • Show Search
KV Healthcare

KV Healthcare

Your Home for Health

MENUMENU
  • Find a Provider
  • Clinics & Specialties
        • Primary Clinics

        • KVH Family Medicine – Cle Elum
        • KVH Family Medicine – Ellensburg
        • KVH Home-Based Primary Care
        • KVH Internal & Adult Medicine
        • KVH Pediatrics
        • KVH Women’s Health
        • KVH Rapid Access
        • Specialty Services

        • Anticoagulation Clinic
        • Addiction Medicine
        • Specialty Clinics

        • ENT & Allergy
        • Cardiology
        • Dermatology
        • General Surgery
        • Home Health
        • Hospice
        • Neurology
        • Orthopedics
        • Urgent Care
        • Vascular Surgery
        • Workplace Health
        • Wound Care
        • Therapy Services

        • Physical Therapy
        • Speech Therapy
        • Occupational Therapy
  • Hospital Services
        • Services

        • Cardiopulmonary
        • Emergency Department
        • Imaging
        • Laboratory
        • Nutrition
        • Pharmacy
        • Surgical
        • Family Birthing Place

        • About Family Birthing Place
        • What to Expect
        • Birth & Family Education
        • Lactation Services
        • 4th Trimester Resource Center
        • Pregnancy & Infant Loss
  • Patients & Visitors
        • Patient Tools

        • Request Medical Records
        • Checking In
        • Visiting
        • Quality of Care
        • Patient Portal
        • Patient Policies
        • Insurance & Billing

        • Accepted Insurance
        • Price Transparency
        • Financial Assistance
        • Pay My Bill
        • No Surprise Act - Balanced Billing
  • About KVH
        • About KVH

        • About KVH
        • Mission & Vision
        • Board of Commissioners
        • Administration
        • Quality of Care
        • DAISY Award Program
        •  

        • News & Blog
        • Contact Us
        • Locations
        • Work With Us / Careers
        • Foundation

        • About the Foundation
        • Board of Directors
        • Ways to Give
        • Donate Now
        • Foundation Events
  • Donate Now
Hide Search

Debi Hofferber

HealthNews · March 1, 2014 ·

Debi Hofferber

Nobody plans a trip to the emergency room.

But when the need arises, everyone wants an emergency room that delivers top quality treatment with attentive care in timely fashion.

At KVH Hospital, seeing is believing. Just ask Cle Elum’s Debi Hofferber.

The 57-year-old Hofferber lived in Canada until she and her husband Rick met online, clicked over a “coffee date” in Bellingham, and fell in love. She’s no stranger to hospital emergency rooms and years of dealing with the Canadian health care system left her jaded. Emergency rooms were crowded. Wait times were often long. When Hofferber’s then 14-year-old daughter Shawna was hit by a car, breaking both legs, she waited more than seven and a half hours for surgery.  “I’d never had a good experience in an emergency room,” Hoffeber says.

Until now.

Flash back to Oct. 12, 2013. Hofferber, recently returned from a visit to Virginia Beach, woke up with what she thought might be stomach flu. Time passed. Her discomfort didn’t.

That evening, her husband Rick, a retired Boeing business manager, convinced her to go the KVH Urgent Care clinic in Cle Elum. A provider, suspecting appendicitis, ran tests. Results were negative. Her temperature was normal.

He sent her home with pills to ease her symptoms – but her pain mounted.

Soon, Hofferber knew she was in trouble. 

Rick offered to drive her to the west side. She demurred. “As bad as I feel,” she said, “take me to Ellensburg. It’s closer.”

They arrived at the Emergency Department just before midnight. A registration clerk quickly assessed the situation, arranged for Rick to fill out paperwork and had Hofferber immediately escorted to an exam room. Nurse Doreen Mohn examined her and hooked up an IV. Dr. Matthew Seaman, an ER physician, examined her, told her he believed she had appendicitis and ordered pain medication. A CT scan confirmed his diagnosis. 

Dr. Frank Smith, a general surgeon, arrived.  “He’s upbeat and funny and just a wonderful man who puts you at ease,” Hofferber says. “He explained everything perfectly.” Four days after her appendectomy, she was home – and sharing her experience.

“I was shocked to find that kind of care in this little hospital in this little town,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it. Boom! I got in right away. The hospital is so modern. Everybody was so nice.  The nurse was always with me. I’ve been in Canadian hospitals. We’re talking night and day here.”

On a scale of one-to-ten, her experience was “definitely a ten,” she says. “I don’t ever want to have to go back to a hospital again. But if I do, I want to go to this one.”

KVH Stories, Patient Stories Emergency Surgery, patient

Primary Sidebar

Categories

MENUMENU
  • KVH Stories
    • Patient Stories
    • Provider Stories
    • Donor Stories
    • Employee Stories
    • Volunteer Stories
    • Share Your Story
    • All
  • Blog Posts
    • Behind the Scenes
    • Childbirth & Family Education
    • Community
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Provider
    • Safety
    • COVID-19
    • All
  • News & Media
    • KVH News
    • Weather/Disaster Notifications
  • Press Releases

Footer Top 1

HRSA National Health Service Corps Site

Footer Top 2

603 S. Chestnut Street - Ellensburg, WA 98926
509.962.9841

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Footer Top 3

Footer Bottom 1

Download the MyPatient Portal App
Apple Store Google Play Store

Footer Bottom 2

  • About KVH
  • KVH Legal Information
  • Price Transparency
  • Careers
  • Board of Commissioners
  • Contact Us
  • Foundation

Footer Bottom 3

  • Our Locations
  • Hospital Services
  • Clinics & Specialty Services
  • Patients & Visitors
  • Patient Policies
  • Events & Education
  • Press Releases

Footer Bottom 4

Google Translate