Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital | Healthy Yakima | Winter 2017

Built for our community VIRGINIA MASON MEMORIAL opened on June 21, 1950, as Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. Its first patient was a baby born the next day. The idea for a second hospital in Yakima, however, was born seven years earlier. “In 1943, Ed Mueller, an accountant in Yakima, brought his daughter, Carol, to another hospital in town. She had polio,” said Russ Myers, CEO of Memorial. “Her parents weren’t able to be in the room with her because of overcrowding, and she passed away without them. That was the catalyst that led the community to build another hospital.” Since then, Memorial has expanded its award- winning specialty care services and grown to include more than 30 health care practices and three convenient-care clinics. Care above and beyond Memorial’s affiliation with Virginia Mason Health System on Jan. 1, 2016, was another milestone in making top-quality care available locally and is perhaps the most important achievement so far. Our shared vision is that patients receive the same high-quality, coordinated care in Yakima and at Virginia Mason in Seattle. As a two-hospital system, Virginia Mason Memorial is now able to provide services in a greater part of the state and serve more patients in Yakima. We are also able to provide more seamless access to specialty care as a result of our affiliation with Virginia Mason, Seattle. Our affiliation could bring more resources (physicians, nursing education, best practices in care, and expansion of surgical and specialty care) eastward. As the largest nonprofit employer in the Valley with over 2,800 employees, Memorial is invested in our community. “I’m excited to see what the future holds,” said Myers. “Virginia Mason Memorial remains devoted to working with our community to create a healthier Yakima.” Winter 2017 HealthyYakima