CMH wins national award Selected for 2024 Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award In late February, the American Hospital Association (AHA) announced Columbia Memorial Hospital as the winner of the 2024 Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award. The AHA is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members come together to form the AHA. Leaders in innovation The award recognizes rural hospital leaders who guide their hospital and community through change and innovation. The honorees display outstanding leadership, responsiveness to their community’s health needs and a collaborative process that has led to measurable outcomes. “Your enduring commitment to rural health care innovation and transformation is laudable,” says the award letter from Susan Doherty, vice president of field engagement at AHA, “and your work at improving quality, patient safety and access for your community is inspirational.” CMH’s application was reviewed multiple times by a panel of rural hospital colleagues. The panel was impressed with the collaboration with Oregon Health & Science University to build the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative. Panelists were also pleased to see the involvement of the Patient and Family Advisory Council in projects at CMH. The panel looks forward to updates as the BuildCMH Expansion Project and Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Refuge Structure (TVERS) are completed and appreciated that the community will be able to use the TVERS as a safe refuge in case of a natural disaster. They also applauded the innovative land swap with Astoria High School to open CMH Field, the all-weather turf sports complex, in 2013. Inspiring trust “We are honored to receive this award and recognition from the American Hospital Association,” says CEO Erik Thorsen. ”At CMH, our leaders share a fundamental understanding. The pursuit of excellence is a continuous journey, and each of us plays a crucial role in ensuring that the talented individuals who work at the hospital and clinics, and the patients we serve, choose CMH. They choose us not because of our location or other conveniences, but because they trust in our unwavering commitment to our mission and values.” Learn about our leadership Members of our leadership team, including the community-led Board of Trustees, are responsible for achieving the organization’s strategic goals. Visit columbiamemorial.org/leadership to learn more. CMH leadership received the award from the American Hospital Association Rural Health Services team at the 2025 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, Feb. 23–26, in San Antonio, Texas. 6 HEALTH COMPASS Late Spring 2025
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