Physician Opportunities

David L. Weber, MD, CEO Welcome to Wenatchee Valley Medical Center

 

About WVMC

Information Technology

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is a leader in bringing health information together to optimize patient care. Our information services company, Clinitech, has been a primary vehicle for this development. Clinitech is a ten-year old cooperative venture between Wenatchee Valley Medical Center and the Everett Clinic focused on providing reliable, industry leading information technologies to the medical staff of both organizations.

A centerpiece of that technology is the Computerized Medical Record (CMR). The CMR integrates information from a variety of specialty specific information systems (imaging, clinical laboratory, anatomic pathology, pulmonary medicine, cardiology lab, GI imaging, anti-coagulation, oncology, etc.) into a usable and practitioner friendly format. The CMR also integrates office and hospital notes, our chronic disease registries, and a constantly updated summary Profile for each Medical Center patient.

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center's sites are linked by high-speed fiber optic connections. By yearend 2006, every Medical Center exam room will be equipped for high-speed CMR and PACS delivery. In addition, through a secure Virtual Private Network connection, the CMR is available to practitioners at home and any other Internet enabled location.

Medical Center has also taken a leadership role in making information technology available to area hospitals and referring physician practices. Our information technology investments have been a significant source of physician satisfaction within, and outside, our organization. A leader in our development efforts has been Medical Information Officer Bill Gotthold, MD, along with a staff of dedicated programmers.

Support to our Communities

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is one of the region’s major employers. Beyond the positive economic impact, the Medical Center also strives to be a Good Neighbor to North Central Washington. The Medical Center is active in each of the communities where it has offices, and generously supports community activities that contribute to the quality of life. The Medical Center has also been a lead supporter of the annual United Way campaign, and last year contributed more than $200,000 to the United Way and its member agencies.

Compassionate Care

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center has a formal charitable care program that last year provided more the $2 million in deeply discounted or free care. The Medical Center has historically made its services available to all area residents without regard to insurance coverage or ability to pay. This is a tradition that provides both physicians and support staff a strong measure of satisfaction, and is one of many reasons Wenatchee Valley Medical Center has a reputation for compassion and clinical excellence.

Area Hospitals

Medical Center is an active and involved partner with the area’s community hospitals. The region’s primary referral hospital is Central Washington Hospital (CWH) in Wenatchee. Central Washington Hospital is a 206-bed community hospital offering a comprehensive range of care through cardiac surgery and neurosurgery. It is one of five hospitals in the state having Level II trauma designation. Supported by Wenatchee Valley Medical Center, which comprises about two-thirds of its medical staff, Central Washington Hospital provides both hospitalist and surgical hospitalist programs.

Medical Center also supports its own Wenatchee Valley Hospital. Wenatchee Valley Hospital is located on the Medical Center’s Wenatchee campus. With six or’s and a high caliber support staff, the hospital offers physicians and patients a convenient and very comfortable hospital experience. Wenatchee Valley Hospital also houses an inpatient rehabilitation service that is CARF certified and very highly regarded.

The Moses Lake Clinic is supported by Samaritan Hospital, a fifty-bed facility that has experienced strong growth and development over the past decade.

Two other community hospitals supported by local Medical Center physicians are Mid-Valley Hospital (Omak) and North Valley Hospital (Tonasket). Both hospitals provide maternity, surgical, and staffed emergency room services.
  

History

Wenatchee Valley Clinic (later Medical Center) was founded in 1940. The three founding physicians, Dr. L.M. Mares (internist), Dr. A.G. Haug (surgeon), and Dr. L.S. Smith (radiologist), wanted to encourage a multi-specialty group practice following the Mayo Clinic model. Their philosophy was that patients were best served when they had easy access to other specialists under the same roof.

The founders were dedicated to that vision and successfully implemented it. Recruiting was integral to organization’s growth and development, then and now. The Medical Center has consistently sought physicians who were excellent in their training and backgrounds, who could contribute in a team approach to medicine, and who genuinely enjoyed patient care.

Today the Medical Center is still physician-owned and directed and continues to have the patient’s best interest as its reason for being. The Medical Center is presently staffed by over 170 physicians, drawn from more than 30 specialty disciplines.

The Medical Center’s patients come from far and wide. In the course of a year, our patient census will total more than 140,000 unique individuals. On average, they will see our physicians 4.5 times per year. Ninety-four percent will reside in the four counties of North Central Washington. The remaining six percent will come from elsewhere in Washington, from forty other states, and from a dozen or more foreign nations.

The size of the Medical Center’s patient population provides a critical mass that supports a broad and comprehensive specialty network. It is built on an excellent primary care foundation and on strong relationships with referring physicians from outside our system.

Our Physician Staff

Physician recruitment and retention are Medical Center strengths. We are an exceptional health care organization in large part because of the caliber and commitment of our medical staff. Our physicians have trained in the nation’s best programs, with many having held previous faculty appointments. Physicians are supported by their colleagues and by an organization that recognizes physicians as key and essential contributors. The organization provides all that physicians need, whether support staff, equipment, and facilities, for effective and efficient practice, and recognizes that a physician’s knowledge and time is a valued resource.

Values

• Patient Service is our organization's reason for being.
• Our patients are our friends, neighbors, and relatives. They are the focus of our efforts. Patients are well informed and involved in their care, and are treated with dignity and respect. They deserve timely access to care; with that care available in modern and convenient locations.
• While modern facilities and state of the art equipment contribute to quality health care, our organization's greatest asset is its staff. Wenatchee Valley Medical Center physicians come from the nation's best medical schools and training programs, and are committed to continuing education and to maintaining and upgrading their skills. Our staff are well trained professionals committed to the highest quality health care and service delivered with care and compassion.
• Teamwork is the key. Patients receive leading-edge care when primary care physicians, specialists, and other health care professionals work together to provide coordinated care. Teamwork is built through recognition of the contribution that each member of our staff makes to our patients' experiences and outcomes.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center strives to be a Good Neighbor and to support the communities we serve and their quality of life with financial assistance and through our individual efforts as involved community members.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is committed to the primacy of the physician-patient relationship. Community-based and focused physicians are unique in their ability to impact and direct the health care of their patients. Health care is most effective when patients, their families and physicians mutually determine medical interventions.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is a physician led health care organization. Our physicians are uniquely qualified to help the health care system improve and progress. They possess the best scientific foundation, know each patient's situation and circumstances more intimately, and are ethically obligated to advocate for their patients. The Medical Center is committed to developing physician leaders and to supporting them in the constructive improvement of health care.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center adds measurable value to the delivery of health care by its commitment to the measurement of care and its quality improvement programs.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center invests in its future. The physician-owners invest significant resources annually to introduce new services, to upgrade existing technologies, and to make high quality services accessible throughout the broad geography of Central Washington State.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center assists and partners with other health care organizations that share these values.
• Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is organized as a professional services corporation registered in the state of Washington and is owned by physician shareholders who must hold a valid license to practice medicine in the state of Washington.
• Under the umbrella of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is Wenatchee Valley Hospital, Wenatchee Valley Clinic, East Wenatchee Clinic, Moses Lake Clinic, North Valley Family Medicine (Tonasket), Pioneer Medical Center (Oroville), and Cashmere Medical Center.
• The clinic's governing body is an elected, eight physician Board of Directors that includes the Chairman of the Board. A Medical Director and Administrator assist the board in its responsibilities with various clinical support staff.

Board of Directors
Dr. David Weber, Chairman
Dr. Stuart Freed, Medical Director
Dr. Joseph Tornabene, Vice Chairman
Dr. Lisa Stone, Secretary/Treasurer
Dr. Peter Rutherford
Dr. Deborah Cahill
Dr. Thomas Carlson
Dr. Michael Kubosumi
Dr. Robert Justus
Shaun Koos, Administrator

Culture

Shared decision making is a cornerstone to the corporate culture at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. There is a strong sense among our physicians that they are an important part of something noble and greater than themselves.

From hallway and quick phone consults to rigorous weekly cancer conferences, physicians rely on each other’s expertise. Strong relationships are built. "Work hard and play hard" is a common theme, largely reflective of a high level of trust in each other. There is plenty to do when you are on duty, and you are left alone when you are off.

Our mission is important: "To provide our patients with the highest quality health care and service in a friendly and caring atmosphere." The mission reflects our daily reality. Linked by a spirit of teamwork and by modern tools and technologies, our physicians lead a regional system of care. 

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is also a learning and teaching organization, with academic ties to the Medical School at the University of Washington and to several of its residency training programs.

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is a place where physicians can pair professionally rewarding careers with a high quality of life. If you like teamwork, want to go to sleep each night assured that your patients are well cared for and the business is secure, don’t mind taking a little longer in the grocery store because you see people you know, and prefer fairness overall, Wenatchee Valley Medical Center may be a great fit for you. Talk to our in-house recruiter (Marilee Smith-Lorenson) at 509 663 8711, or email MDRecruit@wvmedical.com to learn more and to tell us about your goals and interests.

Physician Benefits

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center provides a comprehensive package of employment benefits. The insurance package includes:

• Family Medical Insurance coverage
• Family Dental Insurance coverage
• Life and Accidental Death and Disability Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Personal Umbrella Insurance

Time Off

The Medical Center’s time off benefit is also generous, and recognizes the importance of maintaining an appropriate balance in a physician’s professional and non-professional life. The current time off benefit for full time physicians is 11 weeks annually.

Continuing Education

Maintaining and enhancing professional skills is a priority of the Medical Center. Full time physicians receive a Continuing Medical Education allowance of $4,000 annually. In addition, the Medical Center sponsors a variety of high quality Category 1 Continuing Education programs each year.

Retirement Contributions

The Medical Center is financially secure, and assists its physicians in building a secure financial future. An active Retirement Committee oversees investments in our federally qualified 401-K and Profit-sharing Programs. The Profit-sharing program has been funded at 9.25% of the physician’s annual compensation in recent years. The 401-K program includes a company match of 3% of annual compensation. The combination, at the 2006 IRS salary limit of $220,000, results in a company contribution of $26,000 annually.

Professional Liability Insurance

The Medical Center has an active and effective Risk Management Committee and a very constructive relationship with its professional liability carrier. The Medical Center provides malpractice coverage for its physicians.

Other Benefits

The Medical Center also pays for the physician’s Washington State Medical license, County Medical Society dues, Hospital Staff dues, and DEA license fees. For physicians desiring to pay qualified expenses with before tax dollars, a Section 125 Flexible Benefits plan is also available.

Employment benefits are one more area where Wenatchee Valley Medical Center represents an outstanding employment opportunity.

Communities

Greater Wenatchee Area

The twin cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee have a population of approximately 60,000. Greater Wenatchee serves as the medical, commercial, and retail hub for North Central Washington. The community resides at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers, and sits on the eastern flank of the Cascade mountain range. It is an area of almost unparalleled natural beauty and outdoor opportunity.

The Wenatchee Valley has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s premier fruit growing regions. The area’s warm days, cool nights, and 300 days of annual sunshine, are perfect for agriculture. Harvest-time lasts six months, starting with Bing cherries in May, followed by peaches, apricots, nectarines, pears, and apples in late autumn. Our farmers markets are a veritable cornucopia. The area is also becoming renowned for its vineyards and wineries. Ample sunshine, reflected in our valleys, provides a grape growing climate very similar to that in the Burgundy region of France .

The Wenatchee area is growing. High tech industry has discovered our region, attracted by our low electrical power rates, fiber-optic infrastructure, technologically savvy workforce, and quality of life. The availability of affordable real estate, million dollar views, and high quality healthcare are also strong contributors.

Schools are a priority in our region, and reflect an understanding of how our youth and strong families contribute to community life. The Wenatchee Valley is home to a gifted art community. Many in the visual arts were drawn here by the natural light and landscapes. Many in the performing arts have found a home with the Wenatchee Symphony and at the world-class Sleeping Lady Performance Center.

The Wenatchee Valley is also a vacation-land, drawing visitors from around the world. Those draws, whether backpacking into the Snow Lakes or Pesayten Wilderness, whitewater rafting and kayaking the Wenatchee River, windsurfing on Lake Wenatchee, sailing on Lake Chelan, mountain-biking Pipeline or Devil’s Gulch, or skiing at the Mission Ridge and Stevens Pass ski areas, are available to Wenatchee residents at virtually any time.  Recreation opportunities have historically been a strong selling point for our communities, and an added bonus of working at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.