Celebrating our successes in 2019

It’s hard to believe the end of 2019 is already here. This has been a remarkable year, and before it comes to a close, I want to take a moment to say thank you to the caregivers of Providence. Your dedication has made it possible to extend our Mission to more people in need and advance our vision of Health for a Better World.

And we’ve done so at a time when external forces are bearing down on health care like never before. We continue to feel the pressure of declining reimbursement and increased regulatory burden. We’re seeing medical advances drive more treatments out of the hospital and into the outpatient and home setting. At the same time, consumers are demanding more convenient, more affordable and digitally enabled care — and new entrants the likes of Amazon and CVS are vying to meet that demand.

Yet, I have never been more confident about the future of our organization. As I reflect on 2019, I am deeply grateful to all of you for how much we’ve accomplished. I want to share a few highlights that we can all take pride in and celebrate.

• We’ve nearly eliminated preventable maternal deaths in our ministries at a time when U.S. women are dying from childbirth at alarming rates. 
• Thanks to our dedicated caregivers, 28 of our hospitals were ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report this year.
• We are a founding member of Civica Rx, a not-for-profit generic drug company working to reduce the cost of drugs and address shortages.
• We forged a strategic alliance with Microsoft to empower our caregivers with better software, harness clinical data to improve care and build the hospital of the future.
• We were the first health system on the West Coast to use Amazon Alexa for HIPAA-compliant appointment scheduling.
• Having a health plan for 32 years, we are sharing our expertise and infrastructure with other health systems through our new population health company Ayin.
• We acquired Lumedic, a company that uses block chain — a banking technology — to simplify revenue cycle, as well as Bluetree, an Epic consulting company. Both will help us improve health care and generate new revenue to support our Mission. 
• We partnered with One Medical to increase access to primary care and learn from their innovative patient experience model.
• We are also partnering with Cedars-Sinai to build a new patient care tower together in Southern California, signaling a new spirit of collaboration in health care.
• While credit ratings for much of the health care industry were downgraded, we received a stable outlook from the three major rating agencies: S&P, Fitch and Moody's. 
• We made the lead gift to support Plymouth Housing in Seattle, which in turn inspired Amazon, Microsoft and others to support the campaign for more affordable housing.
• Two of our communities — Spokane and Portland — were selected for the Catholic Charities Healthy Housing initiative, which aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 20 percent.
• The Providence Heart Institute in Oregon received one of the largest philanthropic gifts to a community hospital ever. The $75 million gift from Phil and Penny Knight is a testament to the caregivers who inspired it and the great work they do every day.
• We invested $1.6 billion in community benefit last year and did a better job of caring for those covered by Medicaid, who tend to be sicker and often struggle with poor social conditions. By proactively managing the health of this population, we decreased our uncompensated Medicaid costs by $84 million. 
• We sent volunteer teams to McAllen, Texas, to respond to the refugee crisis at the U.S. Southern Border. Families we served in Guatemala recognized our teams by our blue PSJH T-shirts. It’s inspiring to know our caregivers are a sign of comfort and hope for people who have survived the treacherous journey.

These are just a few examples of the amazing work that’s taking place across our system. There are countless accomplishments in our local ministries as well. Thanks to everyone at Providence, we are ensuring our Mission will endure and flourish for generations to come. 

As the rating agency Fitch said, “Providence will be one of, if not the number one, leading technology innovator in the sector, which should provide Providence with a long-term strategic advantage over its peers.”

While that’s an incredible statement, I want to leave you with this thought: I believe we can be one of the most innovative organizations in the world while also being the most compassionate. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Wherever technology takes us, the human connection will always matter most and remain core to our healing Mission now and in the future.