HealthNews

As Julie Petersen retires after eight and a half years as CEO of Kittitas Valley Healthcare, we should recognize the incredible work she’s done for the people of Kittitas County. When the Board hired Julie in 2016, we knew that she had a strong financial background, having served as CFO and CEO at Prosser, and she came highly recommended by other healthcare leaders. As a CWU graduate, it was also something of a homecoming for her. The Board was confident that we were hiring the right person for the job. But we couldn’t have anticipated just how much she would contribute to our community.

With the support of the Board, Julie’s primary goal has been to provide greater access to healthcare services in Kittitas County and to do so in a financially sustainable way, so that KVH can remain a locally controlled community hospital. Julie saw the growing demand for services here and vowed to keep care local, so people didn’t have to travel over a pass to get treatment. Under her leadership, KVH began to offer many new specialty services, including cardiology, neurology, vascular surgery, nephrology, maternal fetal medicine, pediatrics, otorhinolaryngology (ENT), workplace health, wound care, dermatology, and inpatient dialysis. KVH has also expanded existing services, including physical therapy, and now has a 24-hour outpatient pharmacy and a rapid access clinic. To handle our growth, KVH purchased and renovated the Medical Arts Center and the Radio Hill Annex. We are almost finished with the expansion of our operating rooms, which will greatly increase the number of surgeries our clinicians can perform. Because of physician shortages and low reimbursement rates, several hospitals in Washington state have had to close their OB/GYN practices, especially in rural areas. Julie has maintained those services here so residents don’t have to travel to Yakima to deliver their babies.

Since 2017, the population of Kittitas County has stayed roughly the same as it is now: about 46,000. Yet the number of patient encounters (appointments) has grown by 60 percent: from 67,757 in 2017 to 108,250 this year. The number of unique patients we serve has grown from 26,201 in 2018 to 38,105 in 2023. It can be frustrating when you have to wait weeks to see your doctor, but KVH is doing its best to keep up with patient demand.

What is perhaps most impressive is that, under Petersen’s watch, KVH has done all this while remaining financially solvent. Rural hospitals confront unique financial challenges, which has led to the closure of 193 rural hospitals in the U.S. since 2005. Many others have merged with or been acquired by larger systems – 58 already this year. Unlike many other healthcare organizations in Washington and elsewhere, KVH has maintained a positive operating margin – this despite the fact that Kittitas County Public Hospital District 1 has the lowest tax levy of any other public hospital district in the state.

Julie is one of the most respected healthcare executives in the Northwest. She has had several leadership positions with the Washington State Hospital Association, the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts, and the American Hospital Association. She has maintained positive relationships with our elected officials in both Olympia and Washington, DC. She received WSHA’s Joe Hopkins Award in 2022, “a lifetime achievement award for a health care leader who has made outstanding contributions to health care in the state, especially to rural health care.”

Behind the scenes, Julie has performed many acts of kindness and sacrifice that are too numerous to mention. Julie has always been transparent with and taken direction from the elected commissioners. She refused to be given a raise that was any higher than what the unions negotiated for themselves. When hospitals were losing revenue during the COVID pandemic because of freezes on non-emergency procedures (among other things), no employee was fired or had their pay cut. Julie has also promoted people from within. She has mentored the new CEO, Jason Adler, and the other members of the Senior Leadership Team to become excellent leaders in their own right – thus helping to make the organization strong beyond her tenure as CEO.

I can’t think of anyone who has had as much of a positive impact on Kittitas County over the last eight and a half years. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank her for her dedication to the well-being of the people of Kittitas County, both patients and KVH’s nearly 800 employees. Personally, I am grateful for her intelligence, her dry sense of humor, and her moral character. It’s been a pleasure to work with such a smart and savvy CEO who’s also always trying to do the right thing.

Matt Altman is President of the KVH Board of Commissioners and a professor at Central Washington University