5 Western Washington Hospitals Recognized For COVID-19 Response

SEATTLE — To say it has been a tough few years for local health care workers would be a gross understatement. Hospital workers in Puget Sound and across the country have been pulling long hours and extra shifts for months and months to help contain the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

In an effort to recognize those hospitals for their tireless work, the Western State Hospital Association is presenting five local hospitals with its annual Community Health Leadership Award for their innovative approaches to handling the pandemic.

“We didn’t expect 2021 to be as difficult as it has been,” WSHA CEO Cassie Sauer said. “The wave from the delta variant proved the most vicious yet, sending many hospitals and health systems across the country into crisis standards of care, but it never happened in Washington. By working together with communities across the state, hospitals balanced patient loads, cared for those in need and helped residents get vaccinated. We are proud of the work done by each of our award winners.”

Those five hospitals recognized by the WSHA are:

Washington Medical Coordination Center. Housed in UW Medicine's Harborview Medical Center, this collaboration between the Washington Disaster Medical Coordination Centers and the Northwest Health Care Response Network has helped triage and place COVID-19 patients across the state.

Kittitas Valley Health Care, recognized for quickly responding to the pandemic in March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19 and protect public health. WSHA says the Ellensburg-based Kittitas Valley Healthcare's management team has been a key partner in responding to outbreaks and were a leader in mass-vaccination efforts.

Samaritan Healthcare, a Moses Lake-based hospital recognized for creating a surge plan that would allow the hospital to quadruple capacity, and for offering educational materials in both English and Spanish and providing live translators for patients who speak Ukrainian and Japanese.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, recognized for launching a vaccination program that spanned three counties and eight hospitals across Puget Sound. Through their SuperVax events, they managed to vaccinate up to 3,100 people per day for a total 375,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Swedish Health Services, which used a mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinic to reach underserved communities in Western Washington. In particular WSHA is recognizing their work setting up 21 mobile vaccination sites at "numerous" local churches, the Ethiopian Community Center, and Pacific Islander Community Association. All told, those events distributed over 9,100 vaccines.