The 2017 Leaders in Health Care Awards: Outstanding Medical Center Executive Outside Seattle

As the new chief operating and administrative officer for Providence Health & Services Western Washington market, Preston Simmons is driven by the complexity and challenges of todays health care system. Health care is rapidly changing and going through a current disruption like many large industries before it, he says. What this provides is an opportunity to redesign how we serve our patients and communities in different and better ways, and that will drive a better value equation. Simmons sees the current climate as providing Providence with the responsibility to figure out how to serve more people, with better outcomes, higher quality and at a lower cost structure. He is responsible for Providences Northwest and Southwest regions, consisting of three hospitals, 972 licensed beds and a network of ambulatory clinics and other related health care services. He also has shared services responsibilities for a variety of support functions for the $4.6 billion Western Washington market, including the Swedish Health System. Prior to assuming his current role, he was CEO for the Northwest Region of Providence. He joined the Providence group in 2007. Simmons also has served as the senior associate administrator at the University of Washington Medical Center, was CEO of a rural hospital in Page, Arizona, and served in senior leadership roles at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds and the former Ballard Community Hospital in Seattle.

Bryce Helgerson runs a 225-bed medical center serving the communities of Clark County in southwestern Washington. Salmon Creek, a unit of Portland-based Legacy Health, has often been called one of the most beautiful hospitals in the United States. But it also has an emergency department seeing more than 75,000 patients per year, a neonatal intensive care unit, a full range of surgical and medical services, and a very active Family Birth Center. Salmon Creek Medical Center recently received a four-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and an A safety grade from The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit dedicated to quality, safety and transparency in the American health care system.