Stevens continues to serve despite financial difficulties

As medical staff members at Stevens Hospital, we could not help but notice the many recent articles and letters in this publication concerning Stevens Hospital.

Stevens has been providing high quality health services to the South Snohomish and North King county areas for over 40 years, and will continue to do so in the future. The hospital continues to improve its quality measures as compared to other state and national hospitals (see www.wahospitalquality.org). As with all hospitals, ours is faced with difficult financial issues and decisions about the future. Although we appreciate the support of our citizens and voters, it must be noted that the tax rate supporting Stevens Hospital ranks 37th of 42 public hospitals in Washington state. Many public hospital districts, such as Evergreen and Valley General, are supported with tax levies more than 10 times those supporting Stevens.

Despite this, Stevens is stabilizing financially and is beginning to improve its facility as it continues to provide care for our citizens. As a medical staff, we would like to offer our support and express our confidence in CEO Mike Carter, the current hospital administration and the Board of Commissioners. They are facing difficult choices and decisions about the future direction of Stevens. We have every confidence they will continue to evaluate these options in a timely, wise and open manner to achieve what we all wish — continued and improved high quality health care for our community.

Stevens Hospital Medical Executive Committee

Edmonds

Linda Strong, M.D., Chief of Medicine