Valley Medical Center

Congratulations to Trish Pollara, MD, a physician in our Newcastle Primary Care Clinic and our August 2024 Provider of the Month! See what her colleagues had to say: "This is well deserved for Dr. Pollara. She goes above and beyond for her patients and always puts her patients first. Dr. Pollara is a great mentor for our medical assistants and is always willing to answer any questions they may have. She is a great teacher!" "Dr. Pollara is a fantastic doctor that exemplifies the care and compassion everyone hopes for in a family medicine provider.?She has served her Valley community well for over 20 years.?Her patients and staff love working with her.?Trish routinely goes the extra mile to help her patients and she is always ready to teach – be it staff, patients, students or her fellow providers.?When she does have medical students rotating with her, they always sing her praises.?Dr Pollara is remarkably self-sacrificing and still manages to juggle the challenges of family life and medical practice.?It is an honor and a privilege to work alongside her. "

Congratulations to Tamara Stephens, a Patient Resource Representative in our Clinic Resource Center and one of our August 2024 Employees of the Month! See what her colleagues had to say: "Tamara received a call in Referrals from an unestablished patient who was looking for referrals for their relative who was also not established with Valley an unfamiliar with referrals. Tamara listened to the caller's situation, educated caller on referral processes, and offered to connect them with Scheduling to set up an appointment to become established with a PCP to obtain referrals. When this didn't quite work for the caller's situation, Tamara took the time to further educate them on what steps they could take regarding contacting insurance for in network providers. Even though the caller was not an established Valley patient, Tamara took the time to educate and provide valuable guidance to assist the caller. This demonstrates caring for our community like family, listening carefully, and treating the caller with respect and compassion. This is one of the many times Tamara has provided service excellence to our community. Thank you, Tamara!" "Tamara consistently follows processes and workflows to ensure patients receive the best care possible. She takes the time to educate fellow team members when they have questions on referral processes. Tamara has demonstrated teamwork and collaboration with the Scheduling team when receiving transfer calls to Referrals. Tamara is always willing to take the call to help our patients and does so with a smile throughout the call. She is willing to answer questions and encourages the team to utilize the Referral department for referral related calls. Tamara is a pleasure to work with and has shined even brighter since joining the Referral team. Thank you, Tamara, for your dedication to our patients! We appreciate you!" "Tamara is a model team member and team player. She is always willing to help her coworkers. She ensures she understands her work and that the patients receive the care they need with one call resolve. She is one to be celebrated."

Congratulations to?Taj Singh, RN in the CCU, for winning a DAISY award! Taj's nomination reads: My Mom fell into sudden cardiac arrest. The whole floor of nurses did a wonderful job keeping my mom alive for those 24 hours. Unfortunately, after Taj's shift ended, my mother passed away. The pain will never truly go away but my mom and I know deep down and are truly thankful for the work that was done on her. Words cannot even describe how thankful we all are for everyone. Taj was spectacular and very kind and generous – explaining everything to me and my family. He specially made me feel comfortable during this difficult time. I wish I could thank him repeatedly. My mother would be very grateful for him and the entire team. He went above and beyond for our family. Thank you so much. You are an angel!

Recognizing Our First Responders on Patriot Day On?this dark day in our country's history, we honor the memory of those we lost on 9/11 and pay tribute to the bravery of the first responders. Let us never forget the resilience, unity, and strength that emerged in the face of tragedy. Pictured?below: Valley ED nurses with local first responder partners

We are excited to announce that Yen Nguyen has been promoted to Director, Ambulatory Operations and Education. Yen has been at VMC for the past years working as the Clinic Manager for Newcastle and Renton Highlands Primary Care. In her new role, Yen will be providing oversight and strategic direction for Ambulatory Staffing, Training and Education and Ambulatory Operational Efficiency initiatives. Yen is looking forward to bringing her passion for process improvement, project management and servant leadership, along with her Six Sigma Lean certification, to this new role. When she is not at work, you can find Yen jumping out of airplanes, riding jet skis or hanging at home with a cup of tea, watching Netflix.?

Congratulations David Orange, Our Newest BEE Awardee! It is an honor and privilege to nominate David Orange, of Plant Management, for the BEE award. I am one of many who have been touched by his quiet presence, professionalism on the job, and the joy and happiness that he brings to so many here at VMC. He is personally responsible for putting smiles on the faces of so many people who work here, many of whom do not even know who he is or why his magic occurs. Several months ago, throughout the hospital, units, stairwells, the tunnel, parking lots, and numerous other places, small figurines of animals started to appear anonymously. At first, it was just a novel occurrence and those who found them smiled and shared a quiet story with others on their units about the little turtle, bird, fish, or other animal they found while they were walking through the hospital. People genuinely love to find these small tokens of happiness and you can see people’s collection of them on their desks, their computers, in the cafeteria, or even on their badges. This quiet, generous, and anonymous man has brightened the lives of so many adults of all ages, brought out the child in all of us, and reminds us daily that it takes so little to turn around a bad day and bring joy to everyone we see. All of this was done by an employee who embodies the tenets of the BEE award.?

We are pleased to announce two new Clinic Network medical leadership roles: Dr. Jeanne Moore, Medical Director, Highland Primary Care, and Dr. Yuriy Golub, Medical Director, Fairwood Primary Care. Jeanne Moore, MD,?has been at Valley Medical Center since 2009, when she started residency at Valley Family Medicine. After graduation, she began working at Renton Highlands Primary Care in 2012 and has been here ever since. She enjoys treating patients with depression, anxiety, hypertension, and diabetes. As medical director, she looks forward to working more closely with the other providers here in our clinic as well as with the administration to improve provider well-being and the quality of patient care. Yuriy Golub, MD,?completed his residency at Valley Family Medicine in 2022 and has been at the Fairwood clinic for two years. He is a Ukrainian native but has been a Washington local most of his life and completed his undergraduate degree at UW and medical school at Pacific Northwest University. He's looking forward to working with the wonderful group of people who we call the “Fairwood Family,” and continuing to maintain the positive and supportive culture we have here, while enhancing smooth and efficient team function. He particularly enjoys working with numbers and analytics, and has a passion for helping providers understand our (fairly complex) compensation and production system, grasping what he thinks is key to enhanced job satisfaction and for providers to be adequately compensated for their hard work.

Congratulations to Charlene Espinosa, RN, Manager of Valley's General Medicine unit and our newest DAISY leader awardee. Her nomination read: Charlene is the manager of our vulnerable patient population department called Northwest Pavilion here at Valley.?Her incredible leadership is not only felt by her team, but also demonstrated daily to the patients of this department. On June 17, there was a patient on NWP who was choking, and Charlene was there to save a life. She performed the Heimlich in which she was able to dislodge the bolus. The patients stated, "he's alive," as I am sure we could all imagine that choking is a terrifying thing. Charlene is a leader who "walks the walk," – leadership is a way of life, and it is clear not only through her words but additionally through her actions she demonstrates this value. Please consider Charlene for the DAISY Leader Award. She is a powerful representation of the type of leadership we would like to have here at Valley Medical Center.?

Congratulations to Nick Hales, an Echocardiography Tech in our Echocardiology department and one of our July 2024 Employees of the Month! See what his colleagues had to say: "Nick Hales went above and beyond to get an inpatient echocardiogram done on one of our patients. This patient was hospitalized for non-cardiac reasons, and an echocardiogram had been ordered to evaluate what was thought to be a benign heart murmur. Because of scheduling issues, the patient was ready to discharge from the hospital before the echocardiogram could be done. He was going to get the echocardiogram on an outpatient basis instead, which could have been weeks later. However, Nick realized there was a gap in the echocardiogram schedule and came back to the hospital at the end of the day to do one final scan on this patient. The study ended up showing a major heart valve problem and the patient's discharge was cancelled so that he could remain hospitalized for further evaluation and treatment. This could have been catastrophic if it was not identified for several weeks as the patient waited for an outpatient echocardiogram. Nick saved this patient's life! Nick exemplified Collaboration & Teamwork as he was in communication with me throughout the day working to schedule this patient's echocardiogram. He demonstrated Excellence in his work, going above and beyond to scan a patient in need. And he was Innovative with the echocardiogram workflow, harnessing a gap in the outpatient schedule to come back to the hospital to do another inpatient study." "Nick is a solid leader in the Echo Department, he took over a very challenging role as lead when our previous lead tech retired.?Nick is dedicated, hardworking and always looking out for his team and our patients.?Nick is a role model for the department and works tirelessly to ensure daily operations are organized and efficient, all in addition to providing top patient care to his patients that he scans."

Congratulations to Sarah Snyder, a Case Manager for our Women & Children's Department and one of our July 2024 Employees of the Month! See what her colleagues had to say: "Sarah has been doing an outstanding job supporting the care of multiple NICU patients over the past few months. She is doing this while caring for pediatric and obstetrical patients, as well as covering other adult patients. We have had multiple patients with complex social situations with their families. Sarah has helped us navigate these and helped support families. She is also ensuring that we are being equitable in our care and truly focusing on providing families extra support when needed. She is supportive of the provider staff as well, by being so efficient with workflow. Sarah's work is specifically helping us address EDI in the NICU. We have so many patients from areas far away with few resources, language barriers, and more. She is gracious and dependable with the support she is providing for these families. In addition, she is an excellent communicator, is frequently seen on the unit, and is responsive to all staff members. Please recognize Ms. Snyder for her excellent work." "Sarah is a social worker who is assigned to the Mother Baby unit.?She has demonstrated compassion and perseverance in a high acuity, high need environment and been instrumental in assisting the unit to provide the highest level of quality care to a vulnerable population."