At the end of a year, or the beginning of a new year, depending on how you look at it, I think it is important to reflect on the wins of the period ending. St. Mary’s and Clearwater Valley Health have a lot of 2024 wins to celebrate.  We continue to strengthen our relationship with Kootenai Health and add specialty clinic services when we can. We are lucky to have Dr. Bowen, an orthopedist, and Dr. McGowan, a neurosurgeon, come to Clearwater Valley Health for outpatient clinic visits every month. They will start coming to Kamiah and Cottonwood in 2025.  They join Dr. Wallace and Dr. Engles, cardiologists, and Dr. Landry, vascular surgeon, who have been coming for some time now.

St. Mary’s Health and Clearwater Valley Health also were the recipients of a grant from the M J Murdock Charitable Trust. With this grant money, and additional donations from St. Mary’s Health Foundation and Clearwater Valley Health Foundation, we were able to purchase our own 3D mobile mammography bus.  We are excited to be able to offer mammograms in Orofino, Kamiah, Cottonwood, and Grangeville by the end of the month.

To bill Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), hospitals must be compliant with the Conditions of Participation outlined by CMS to ensure we are providing high quality and safe care.  We are surveyed annually but certified for three years at a time.  This was a recertification year for us, and we achieved it.

St. Mary’s Health and Clearwater Valley Health have been certified as a Level IV Trauma Center within the State of Idaho for several years.  However, this year, we applied for an additional designation, a Level III Stroke Center, and a Level II STEMI Center, and after a thorough application process and onsite survey, we were awarded the designation.  This designation requires continued improvement efforts and must be reviewed every three years by Idaho.  We are committed to providing the highest level of care for our community, including adhering to time-sensitive standards around trauma care, such as stroke and STEMI.

While there are many other 2024 celebrations, the final one I want to share is the addition of our newest physicians. Dr. Nicholas Henrie (SMH), Dr. Anna Fox (CVH) and Dr. Phebe Alley (CVH) joined our medical staff in the fall and have fully immersed themselves into the culture. They are all practicing full spectrum family medicine and working in our primary care clinic, hospital services and emergency department; as well as delivering babies.  Dr. Alley and Dr. Henrie have joined our OB surgical services call partners to provide backup for cesarean section deliveries.  We are extremely fortunate to have these highly skilled physicians join us and make their homes in Cottonwood and Orofino.

I wish you all a happy new year as we close out 2024 and look forward to 2025. Thank you for continuing to choose Clearwater Valley Health as your health care provider as we continue to bring the high-quality care you deserve, close to home.