Washington State Hospital Association

10/20/2026

Next up for Healthcare Quality Week: MultiCare Deaconess Hospital.

Improving health care quality means addressing some of the most pressing public health challenges facing our communities. At MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, teams are transforming care for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) through an innovative approach that’s expanding access to evidence-based treatment and improving connections to long-term recovery.

What began as an Emergency Department pilot has evolved into a groundbreaking program that positions Deaconess as a leader in Washington state.

Today, the hospital is the only facility in Eastern Washington offering long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) in the Emergency Department, and the first and only hospital in Washington to provide LAIB treatment for eligible patients during inpatient hospitalization.

This important advancement in OUD treatment helps patients stay on track with daily medication while creating opportunities for sustained engagement in recovery services. By initiating treatment at critical points of care, clinicians can help patients move from acute settings to ongoing community-based support.

Since February 2026, Deaconess has administered 46 doses of Brixadi to 44 unique Emergency Department patients. Building on that success, the program expanded to inpatient care in July 2026, where 13 doses have already been administered to 11 patients, including antepartum and postpartum patients with complex healthcare needs.

The results are remarkable. Since implementing LAIB, patients who received the injection have:

-- Reduced their Emergency Department utilization across Inland Northwest hospitals by 60%.

--Decreased their Emergency Department utilization within MultiCare facilities by 65%.

--Engaged in their in community follow-up care at a rate of 70%.

--Shrunk hospital write-offs by $600,000.

These results demonstrate the power of treating opioid use disorder as a chronic health condition that benefits from timely, evidence-based intervention and strong community partnerships.

Participation in the Braeburn Hospital Initiation Free Trial (BIFT) accelerated this work by supporting access to inpatient LAIB treatment while strengthening hospital and community provider collaboration. The initiative helps ensure patients can begin treatment during hospitalization and leave connected to ongoing recovery resources.

Most importantly, this work reflects a commitment to health equity, innovation and patient-centered care. By integrating long-acting injectable buprenorphine across emergency and inpatient settings, Deaconess is helping reshape how healthcare systems respond to opioid use disorder.

The program offers a promising path to keep patients in treatment, support recovery, prevent avoidable hospital visits and strengthen communities.

As we celebrate Healthcare Quality Week, Deaconess exemplifies innovative care, multidisciplinary teamwork and a relentless focus on patient needs. Their work is driving better health outcomes, showing how improved care processes can create lasting positive changes for patients, families and communities across Washington.

10/19/2026

It’s Healthcare Quality Week! Each day, we’re spotlighting a Washington hospital making a difference through exceptional care. At Valley Medical Center & Clinics, their principle of understanding the whole person is guiding efforts to integrate Social Drivers of Health and Age-Friendly Care into everyday clinical practice.

𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 & 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐞-𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞

Quality care begins with understanding the whole person, not just the medical condition that brings someone to the hospital. At Valley Medical Center & Clinics, a public hospital system serving South King County, that principle is guiding efforts to integrate Social Drivers of Health (SDOH) and Age-Friendly Care (AFC) into everyday clinical practice. By connecting social-needs screening with care planning, community resources, and standardized clinical workflows, Valley is strengthening its ability to recognize barriers that can affect recovery, safety and access to ongoing care.

Housing instability, food insecurity, unreliable transportation, inadequate utilities and concerns about interpersonal safety can all affect a patient’s physical and mental health and impact their ability to access care and resources reliably. Identifying these needs is an important first step, but ensuring the information reaches the right people and informs the next steps in care is critical.

In November 2025, Valley implemented enhancements to its electronic health record (Epic) to better connect screening with follow-up. The updated workflows include 12 SDOH screening questions, automated referrals to social work for positive screens, more consistent documentation in hospitalist notes and discharge summaries, and improved identification of social risks for coding and reporting.

The enhancements also connect patients more reliably with a social worker to identify the right community resources, with those resource links also automatically incorporated into discharge instructions. This helps create a more consistent process for identifying needs, documenting interventions, and connecting patients with available support.

This work addresses an important challenge for healthcare organizations: ensuring that information gathered in one part of the care journey informs decisions throughout the hospitalization and discharge process.

Valley is also incorporating the needs of older adults into its quality and safety practices through the CMS Age-Friendly Hospital framework and its five domains of Age-Friendly Care.

Valley enhanced workflows to support screening and follow-up related to identifying and addressing what matters most to our aging patient population. Tools designed to identify and address concerns with mentation, mobility, or malnutrition were reconfigured to be top of mind for the care teams. Pharmacy teams evaluate potentially inappropriate medications due to age with alerts providing guidance on dosing and alternative options. A hospital wide incorporation of a delirium care pathway ensures early and reliable identification of mentation changes.

Valley also strengthened screening for social vulnerabilities among older adults. For example, patients age 65 and older who have positive interpersonal-safety screens trigger an automated social work referral and additional assessment for potential elder abuse using the validated Elder Abuse Suspicion Index, when appropriate.

An integrated Epic AFC dashboard provides executive leadership with greater visibility into Age-Friendly Care requirements and related improvement work. Reporting and oversight draw on existing quality and safety structures, helping connect frontline practice with organizational accountability.

Looking ahead, Valley is committed to addressing outcomes related to loneliness, lack of a caregiver, and mobility at a deeper, more meaningful level.

These initiatives reflect a broader lesson: meaningful quality improvement requires more than adding another screening question or meeting another reporting requirement. It requires aligning people, processes, technology and community resources around the needs of patients.

Valley’s work brings together nursing, medical social work, hospitalists, pharmacy, rehabilitation, nutrition, case management, coding and other clinical and operational partners. Standardized documentation and automated workflows help reduce gaps in communication while supporting more consistent care planning and reporting. The work continues as Valley reviews performance, validates reporting, identifies opportunities for improvement, and advances discipline-specific initiatives.

For a public hospital with finite resources, this approach focuses on making existing systems work more effectively together so social needs are less likely to be overlooked, older adults receive more individualized attention, and care transitions better reflect the circumstances patients face beyond the hospital.

During Healthcare Quality Week, we celebrate Valley and the teams advancing this work and applaud the shared commitment behind it: Caring for our community like family.

10/16/2026

Congratulations to Cascade Medical Center CEO Diane Blake, WSHA's 2026 Joe Hopkins Award winner! Recipients are recognized for their exceptional work expanding access to rural health care and championing rural hospitals. The award honors the leadership and dedication of the late Joe Hopkins, a pioneer in rural health care advocacy.

Under Blake’s leadership, Cascade Medical brought care closer to home for residents across more than 1,200 square miles. Its mobile health van reaches underserved communities, while its Mobile Integrated Health program connects patients with services and follow-up care.

“Diane Blake’s commitment to advocacy, collaboration and community health embodies the spirit of the Joe Hopkins Award,” said WSHA CEO Cassie Sauer. “Her leadership has strengthened rural health care across Washington and helped ensure patients in rural communities have access to the care they need.”

Blake’s impact reaches beyond her community to Olympia and Washington, D.C., where she advocates for policies that address challenges for all rural hospitals and the people they serve. A former WSHA Board Chair, she led key finance, policy and planning committees and currently represents WSHA on the American Hospital Association’s Regional Policy Board.

“Diane is a tireless advocate for rural health care whose influence extends far beyond our organization,” said Cascade Medical Board Chair Shari Day-Campbell. “Her work improved health care access in our community and continues to shape the future of rural health across Washington state.”

Blake also serves on the boards of the Rural Collaborative, RHE and the Community Foundation of North Central Washington.

10/15/2026

Join us in welcoming Eric Moll, the Superintendent and CEO of Mason Health, as WSHA's new board chair. Moll will preside over the board of directors and help lead WSHA’s work in the coming year. WSHA hospital and health system members elected Moll on Oct. 14 during the association’s annual membership meeting.

"WSHA's strength comes from hospitals working together. I am honored to serve as board chair at a time when collaboration, advocacy, and innovation are more important than ever,” Moll said. “Together, we can help ensure Washington's hospitals remain strong and continue providing the care our communities need."

Moll joined Mason Health in 2004 and has focused his career on improving access to health care in rural communities. During his tenure, Mason Health has grown from a single rural hospital into an integrated health care system offering a broader range of services to Mason County and surrounding communities. Moll has also served on the American Hospital Association’s Regional Policy Board, and the Washington Rural Health Collaborative board. Through these organizations, he works with other health care leaders to strengthen partnerships and support access to care in rural communities.

“Eric brings steady leadership and deep experience to the board at a tumultuous and crucial time in health care,” said Cassie Sauer, WSHA President and CEO. “As the full impact of H.R. 1 cuts to Medicaid go into effect, we are grateful to have a thoughtful and committed leader to chair the board and guide our direction during this critical year.”

10/13/2026

Congratulations to Jason Adler on being named one of Becker’s rising stars in health care!

Exciting News for Kittitas Valley Healthcare
We are pleased to share that KVH CEO Jason Adler has been recognized on Becker’s Hospital Review’s national list of “Rising Stars: Healthcare Leaders Under 40” for 2026.
This national recognition reflects the hard work across our entire KVH team to keep quality care close to home, including stabilizing 24/7 care at the Family Birthing Place, welcoming 26 new providers, expanding specialty services, and strengthening hospital district finances.
As Jason shared: "The recognition belongs to the dedicated and committed staff at KVH... It’s an honor to do this work for our community and to help keep high-quality care local for our neighbors."
Please join us in congratulating Jason!
Read the full announcement: https://www.kvhealthcare.org/2026/10/kvh-ceo-jason-adler-named-to-beckers-hospital-review-rising-stars-healthcare-leaders-under-40-list/

09/28/2026

WSHA is hiring! We're looking for an Events, Membership, and Partner Fulfillment Specialist: https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/portal/0885019AB9D62F14C17840AB175C9F75/jobs/102968

At WSHA, you will coordinate timelines, budgets, communications, vendors, registration and onsite logistics while helping ensure our partners receive excellent service. Initiative and strong communication are key to making complex events feel seamless and creating meaningful experiences for our members. You’ll put those skills to work supporting major WSHA events and independently managing smaller programs.

This full-time, hybrid Seattle position offers a salary range of $56,202-$81,498, plus comprehensive benefits. Interested? Apply today!

06/08/2026

Thoughtful prescribing practices are key to preventing prescription opioid misuse. In a new video developed in partnership between WSHA and the Washington State Health Care Authority’s Starts with One campaign, clinicians from Providence Swedish and North Valley Hospital District highlight how evidence-based opioid prescribing can improve patient safety.

By setting clear expectations, prescribing the lowest effective dose and duration, and educating patients on risks, providers can help reduce harm while still effectively managing pain.

Prescribing decisions don’t end at the point of care. Conversations about safe use, storage and disposal remain essential to protecting patients, their families and the broader community.

We’re grateful to the providers across Washington who are leading this important work every day.

Watch the video and consider sharing it with your clinical teams to support safe, informed prescribing practices.

06/04/2026

Washington State needs more trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, especially in rural areas where access to this specialized patient care can support recovery from the trauma of sexual assault in under-resourced rural communities.

The application period is now open for WCN's SANE Training Fellowship this fall. The application period is open through July 31, 2026. If you are a Washington RN considering SANE training, apply today.

The demand is particularly urgent for diverse and rural SANE-qualified nurses across our state. To learn more or to apply visit:

The application period is now open for WCN's 2026 SANE Training Fellowship this fall! If you are a Washington RN considering SANE training, apply today! Washington State needs more trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. This is even more true in rural areas where access to this specialized type of....

05/28/2026

Summit Pacific Medical Center's work reimagining rural healthcare is earning national attention with a feature on All Access with Andy Garcia. It's a well-deserved recognition of the innovative, community-centered care model being built right here in Washington.

https://summitpacificmedicalcenter.org/all-access/

From its integrated Wellness Center to forward-thinking programs like Summit Care, Food as Medicine and behavioral health integration, Summit Pacific is putting the focus on prevention, whole-person wellness and access close to home.

This spotlight reinforces the importance of investing in people and proactive care. Summit Pacific is improving local outcomes while shaping a national conversation about the future of healthcare.

A big congratulations to the entire Summit Pacific team for exemplifying what high-quality, community-driven care looks like.

Summit Pacific Medical Center will be featured on All Access with Andy Garcia. Stay tuned to learn how this rural hospital is transforming healthcare through innovation, wellness, and community-focused care.

05/21/2026

Excited to see Seattle Children's leading the way with its new Introduction to Autism video series. The videos are filled with clear, accessible information for families, and designed to ensure every child’s experience is seen, heard and respected. Take a look!

https://www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/autism-center/patient-family-resources/videos/