Washington State Hospital Association

19/08/2025

Members of WSHA's Clinical Excellence team traveled to Prosser Memorial Health last week for the second of three summer Rural Quality Roundtables. We were joined by quality leaders from six rural hospitals for a great discussion on community resource referrals.

A highlight of the day was learning about Prosser’s Community Paramedic Program, which extends primary care into patients’ homes through paramedicine. It’s an excellent example of rural ingenuity meeting patient needs.

We wrapped up with a tour of Prosser’s new hospital—thank you to Kristi Mellema and the entire Prosser Memorial Health team for your warm hospitality and leadership!

Our final Rural Quality Roundtable will be held Aug. 27 in Davenport. For more info, reach out to Megan Herman at meganh@wsha.org.

15/08/2025

Great work by a great hospital!

For the fourth consecutive year, Island Health has earned an overall five-star hospital quality rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—the highest distinction awarded by the federal agency. Read more about this prestigious honor here https://bit.ly/4fCdj4Y

13/08/2025

Astria Health's expanded behavioral health unit is a major step forward for mental health care in the Lower Yakima Valley. The upgrade will double capacity and create a healing space for those who need it most.

11/08/2025

We recently marked a meaningful milestone in our clinical excellence journey with the inaugural Rural Quality Roundtable held at Summit Pacific Medical Center. This event gathered Chief Nursing Officers and Quality Leaders from seven hospitals for a half day of in-person connection, collaboration and shared learning.

A heartfelt thank you to Tori Bernier, CNO/COO of Summit Pacific, for hosting this impactful event and an insightful tour of the center’s exciting new expansion.

We have two more Rural Quality Roundtables scheduled for Aug. 15 and 27, contact Megan Herman (meganh@wsha.org) or Tracy Wellington (tracyw@wsha.org) for more information.

08/08/2025

WATCH: Rural hospitals will be hit hard by Medicaid cuts. WSHA's Jacqueline Barton True joined MSNBC this week to dig into what those losses mean for Washington's own rural providers and the patients who depend on them.

05/08/2025

Good news for kids in Kennewick, Pasco and Richland! McKinstry's $500,000 gift will increase available space at Seattle Children's Tri-Cities Clinic by adding exam rooms and a lab — bringing ancillary services like phlebotomy and lab processing in-house.

Seattle Children’s Tri-Cities Clinic in Kennewick recently received a generous donation of $500,000 from McKinstry, a national construction and energy services firm headquartered in Seattle, to help expand access to care for kids throughout Central and Eastern Washington.

31/07/2025

Shoutout to our Washington hospitals recognized by the American Heart Association! Their outstanding work delivers lifesaving care for heart disease and stroke patients across our state.

SEATTLE, July 29, 2025 — hospitals in Washington are among the 4,800 nationwide that participate in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® initiative to improve outcomes for individuals who experience heart disease or stroke. Heart...

30/07/2025

Some of the tiniest patients at Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane now have a powerful new resource: a breast milk donation site to help support premature and critically ill babies in the NICU.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Some of Providence Sacred Heart's tiniest and most vulnerable patients now have a new resource to help them grow and thrive.

24/07/2025

WSHA’s new SBIRT video series gives care teams quick, practical tools to identify and address substance use early. Created with rural hospitals in mind, these short trainings help busy providers make a big impact in just minutes.

https://www.wsha.org/resource/video-training-screening-brief-intervention-and-referral-to-treatment/

21/07/2025

Medicaid cuts will have deep and far-ranging impacts on Washington state hospitals and patients. Great job by WSHA's Jacqueline Barton True breaking down what it means for providers and the communities they serve - especially in rural areas - across our state.

State leaders and hospital officials say the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" signed into law earlier this month by President Donald Trump could impact the access of hundreds of thousands of Washington residents to health care, especially in rural parts of the state.

01/07/2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act as passed by the Senate today is a disaster for Washington State’s hospitals and the patients we serve. There is no way we can absorb this level of cuts in the Medicaid program without massive impacts to all Washingtonians’ access to care.

Impacts will be severe for both rural and urban hospitals. To address concerns about rural hospital impacts, the Senate added a “rural health transformation fund” and claims this will protect rural hospitals from the cuts in the bill. The rural fund is wholly inadequate: It adds bureaucracy and administrative hurdles to accessing funds and does not even come close to making up for payment cuts. Offering this as a solution is like punching someone in the face and then offering them a Bandaid.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act as passed by the Senate today is a disaster for Washington State’s hospitals and the patients we serve. There is no way we can […]

18/06/2025

Washington's rural hospitals operate on thin margins and depend on Medicaid to stay afloat. Now a crucial source of Medicaid funding – the provider tax – is at risk.

How does the tax work, why is it key to care access for tens of thousands of Washingtonians and what will be the impact of proposed federal legislation? Read more:

All states except Alaska have at least one provider tax. A significant proportion of the revenue the taxes generate goes toward supporting rural hospitals.