The Rules of Engagement

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…

By Myke Folger

Leading into an Electronic Future

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…

By Linn Parish

Leaders in Health Care

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…

Seattle Business Magazine

Say “Ah!”

Imagine a reality in which, with just a swab from the cheek, people could know exactly which diseases they are predisposed to, what they will die from and the speed at which it will happen. It’s not science fiction. This is what Paul Slowey, CEO of Vancouver, Wash.-based Oasis Diagnostics Corp., is now working to…

By Kate Vesper

Forging Bonds in the Face of Illness

List of winners in the Nonprofit Organizations category Standing in front of adowntown Seattle billboard from the Greater Washington Chapter of the NationalMS Society are chapter president Patty Shepherd-Barnes (front), with (left toright), program coordinator Piper Reynolds, donor relations manager BreeBarnes, database specialist Amy Boe and accounting and human resources specialistHae Soon Hong. Winner: Greater…

By Nick Horton

Bidding on Health Care

Artist and craft-show vendor Shane Harris of Tacoma lived with the pain of abscessed teeth for years because he didn’t have dental insurance. The pain would wax and wane, but it was always there “like background music.” He knew he’d need the teeth extracted, followed by implants, but never had enough cash on hand to…

By Elaine Porterfield

Talking Points: Gary Kaplan

Virginia Mason CEO Gary Kaplan borrowed from the auto industry to implement a system of constant improvement in order to boost the quality of health care while also cutting its costs. This implementation of continuous improvement, originally started at Toyota, got Kaplan an invitation to the White House to share his experiences with President Obamas…

Compiled and edited by Leslie D. Helm

Turning Health Care Upside-Down

The June trip to Washington, D.C., Dr. Garrison Bliss explains in a hurried phone call from the nations capital, involved more defense than offense. We just want to make sure [lawmakers] dont do something to damage what we want to do, Bliss says. We want them to know that insurance has been central in the…

By Mike Lewis

Game Changers

As we march inexorably deeper into 2009, we seem to be walking through a minefield. Everywhere we go there is bad news. Virtually every major Washington institution has announced layoffs. And if they havent yet, theres a good chance they soon will. Stock prices keep sinking, and many companies now face the threat of bankruptcy….

By Randy Woods and Julie H. Case

Health Care Heroes 2009

Washington state has long ranked among the nations leaders when it comes to state-of-the-art health care. But who are the dedicated professionals helping to make this state such a unique place for the health care industry and life sciences to flourish? And more to the point, who are the best of the best? Identifying those…

By Dean Paton

Prescription for Health Care Savings

Prescription drug advertisements, it seems, are everywhere. We stumble upon them while watching television, while reading our newspapers and magazines, or while flittering aimlessly about the web. Ever feel awkward or anxious in social settings? No worries: Paxil knows how you feel. How about sleep? Is it ever hard to slow your racing mind? Fear…