Doing the Right Thing

Leo Greenawalt knows what it means to fight for change over the long term. As the president and CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, he has been in the forefront of resolving heated conflicts over health care costs, reimbursements and availability. His admirers say hes an ethical, committed leader who knows how to find consensus in a room full of special interests.

But when you ask Leo to explain his secret weapon, all he talks about is patience. As a young man, he took to heart the lesson that almost anything worth doing, legislatively, would take six to 10 years.

Add to patience a dose of faith in human nature. It is part of my worldview that most people want to do the right thing, he says. For him, the right thing is providing access to health care for all, which he began to tackle from the first days of his 30 years at the helm of the nonprofit trade association of Washington hospitals.

In the early 1980s, he brought health care leaders together to find ways to expand Medicaid. Next, he worked with hospitals and unions to help create the states Basic Health Plan to cover the uninsured. He established enhanced programs for children and pregnant women and, in 1993, pushed for enactment of comprehensive state health care reform.

A voice for the importance of public health and a leader in introducing tobacco policy aimed at smoking reduction, Greenawalt is nationally recognized, and he has received many professional awards, including the American College of Healthcare Executives Gold Medal Award. The Group Health Community Foundation honored him for expanding coverage to the uninsured. And, in January, the associations collaborative effort to unite regional hospitals over patient safety guidelines earned it the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award from the National Quality Forum. One of the nominators was noted physician and author Atul Gawande.

Facing renewed attacks on the Basic Health Plan in 2011, he continues to lean on patience and faith, quoting Winston Churchill: Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing … but only after they have exhausted all other possibilities.

RUNNERS-UP>>>

Sigvard T. Hansen Jr., Professor of orthopedics and sports medicine, University of Washington

Often facing down skeptical colleagues, Sigvard Hansen Jr. transformed the science of orthopedic medicine, from pioneering the now-standard practice of stabilizing fractures with internal hardware to surgically repairing foot and ankle anomalies that other surgeons declared inoperable. A member of the team that developed the modern practice of emergency medicine at the University of Washingtons Harborview Medical Center, he was honored with an endowed chair in his name in traumatology at UW Medicine.

Stanley Stamm, Cardiologist, Seattle Childrens Hospital

Stanley Stamm devoted nearly 60 years to treating children with serious conditions at Seattle Childrens Hospital. And when families in remote, rural communities couldnt come to him, he filled his van with supplies and brought cardiac care to them. In 1967, he founded a summer camp near Mount Rainier to provide life-affirming experiences of the outdoors to children with complex illnesses. Recently retired, Stamm will be missed by colleagues who call him the heart and soul of the hospital.