Valley Medical Center

We are pleased to announce two new Clinic Network medical leadership roles: Dr. Jeanne Moore, Medical Director, Highland Primary Care, and Dr. Yuriy Golub, Medical Director, Fairwood Primary Care. Jeanne Moore, MD, has been at Valley Medical Center since 2009, when she started residency at Valley Family Medicine. After graduation, she began working at Renton Highlands Primary Care in 2012 and has been here ever since. She enjoys treating patients with depression, anxiety, hypertension, and diabetes. As medical director, she looks forward to working more closely with the other providers here in our clinic as well as with the administration to improve provider well-being and the quality of patient care. Yuriy Golub, MD, completed his residency at Valley Family Medicine in 2022 and has been at the Fairwood clinic for two years. He is a Ukrainian native but has been a Washington local most of his life and completed his undergraduate degree at UW and medical school at Pacific Northwest University. He's looking forward to working with the wonderful group of people who we call the “Fairwood Family,” and continuing to maintain the positive and supportive culture we have here, while enhancing smooth and efficient team function. He particularly enjoys working with numbers and analytics, and has a passion for helping providers understand our (fairly complex) compensation and production system, grasping what he thinks is key to enhanced job satisfaction and for providers to be adequately compensated for their hard work.

Congratulations to Charlene Espinosa, RN, Manager of Valley's General Medicine unit and our newest DAISY leader awardee. Her nomination read: Charlene is the manager of our vulnerable patient population department called Northwest Pavilion here at Valley. Her incredible leadership is not only felt by her team, but also demonstrated daily to the patients of this department. On June 17, there was a patient on NWP who was choking, and Charlene was there to save a life. She performed the Heimlich in which she was able to dislodge the bolus. The patients stated, "he's alive," as I am sure we could all imagine that choking is a terrifying thing. Charlene is a leader who "walks the walk," – leadership is a way of life, and it is clear not only through her words but additionally through her actions she demonstrates this value. Please consider Charlene for the DAISY Leader Award. She is a powerful representation of the type of leadership we would like to have here at Valley Medical Center. 

Congratulations to Nick Hales, an Echocardiography Tech in our Echocardiology department and one of our July 2024 Employees of the Month! See what his colleagues had to say: "Nick Hales went above and beyond to get an inpatient echocardiogram done on one of our patients. This patient was hospitalized for non-cardiac reasons, and an echocardiogram had been ordered to evaluate what was thought to be a benign heart murmur. Because of scheduling issues, the patient was ready to discharge from the hospital before the echocardiogram could be done. He was going to get the echocardiogram on an outpatient basis instead, which could have been weeks later. However, Nick realized there was a gap in the echocardiogram schedule and came back to the hospital at the end of the day to do one final scan on this patient. The study ended up showing a major heart valve problem and the patient's discharge was cancelled so that he could remain hospitalized for further evaluation and treatment. This could have been catastrophic if it was not identified for several weeks as the patient waited for an outpatient echocardiogram. Nick saved this patient's life! Nick exemplified Collaboration & Teamwork as he was in communication with me throughout the day working to schedule this patient's echocardiogram. He demonstrated Excellence in his work, going above and beyond to scan a patient in need. And he was Innovative with the echocardiogram workflow, harnessing a gap in the outpatient schedule to come back to the hospital to do another inpatient study." "Nick is a solid leader in the Echo Department, he took over a very challenging role as lead when our previous lead tech retired. Nick is dedicated, hardworking and always looking out for his team and our patients. Nick is a role model for the department and works tirelessly to ensure daily operations are organized and efficient, all in addition to providing top patient care to his patients that he scans."

Congratulations to Sarah Snyder, a Case Manager for our Women & Children's Department and one of our July 2024 Employees of the Month! See what her colleagues had to say: "Sarah has been doing an outstanding job supporting the care of multiple NICU patients over the past few months. She is doing this while caring for pediatric and obstetrical patients, as well as covering other adult patients. We have had multiple patients with complex social situations with their families. Sarah has helped us navigate these and helped support families. She is also ensuring that we are being equitable in our care and truly focusing on providing families extra support when needed. She is supportive of the provider staff as well, by being so efficient with workflow. Sarah's work is specifically helping us address EDI in the NICU. We have so many patients from areas far away with few resources, language barriers, and more. She is gracious and dependable with the support she is providing for these families. In addition, she is an excellent communicator, is frequently seen on the unit, and is responsive to all staff members. Please recognize Ms. Snyder for her excellent work." "Sarah is a social worker who is assigned to the Mother Baby unit. She has demonstrated compassion and perseverance in a high acuity, high need environment and been instrumental in assisting the unit to provide the highest level of quality care to a vulnerable population."

Congratulations to Mike Garcia, MD a Critical Care Intensivist at Valley, and our June 2024 Provider of the Month! See what his colleagues had to say: "Dr. Garcia continuously delivers high-quality care to critically ill patients in the CCU, with an unwavering work ethic, selfless positive disposition, and highest quality standards. He routinely goes the extra mile caring for our sickest patients. The entire CCU staff constantly remark on the positive effect his presence has made to our unit. Dr. Garcia is among the top providers at Valley. My hope is that we can recognize this outstanding individual for all of his hard work." "Mike is the hardest working intensivist I've seen. He goes the extra mile to take care of his patients and I'm happy to see him featured here!" "Mike has been a Pulmonary Intensivist in the CCU since 8/22. He is a wonderful physician and treats everyone with kindness and respect. Everyone speaks highly of Mike. He instantly fit in to the group with his skill set and personality, we hope he stays for a very long time. I hear him say hello to staff and call them by their name, this means a lot to them. I fully support his nomination for Provider of the month as do our providers.

Congratulations to Eva Gaye, a Housekeeper in our Environmental Services department and one of our June 2024 Employees of the Month! See what her colleagues had to say: "Ava from EVS has gone above and beyond during her shift in the ED. She has gone into each individual patient room, respectfully, and changed out the trash and the hazard trash. She also cleaned and mopped the floors in the rooms. She has been so kind and helpful throughout this entire shift. She has a very calm and kind demeanor. If the patients needed assistance, she would come out and notify nursing staff. I appreciated her help and her going above and beyond to complete her tasks and helped the flow in the ED!" "Eva is a great Employee. Reliable and hard-working."

Congratulations to 6 South's Alex Matsyshen, RN, our latest DAISY award winner. Alex's nomination reads: Alex is a very professional RN. Alex always makes sure that patients are safe, and he helps them. He is responsive and makes patients happy. A patient had anxiety and just needed to have someone beside them. Alex was patient at every encounter, sitting and reassuring the patient that he was safe, and the video EEG was not something the patient needed to worry about. The patient wanted to be discharged and was concerned about his car, so Alex spent his whole shift making sure the car was taken care of and convincing the patient he was safe in the hospital and not to leave. Alex did all his while tending to his three other patients. 

Congratulations to Heather Mosley, Manager, Orthopedics and Surgical, for recently receiving a Daisy Leader Award! Heather’s nomination reads: I cannot thank you enough for your kindness “always,” and allowing me to stay overnight with my dad for his knee replacement last night! You have always gone above and beyond for the patients on that floor as well as their family members and your staff. You are appreciated more than you will ever know! I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from your nursing staff that the reason they are there is BECAUSE OF HEATHER!!! That speaks volumes and I have experienced it myself and see exactly what they mean. I have never experienced a Nurse Manager to be so caring and making rounds to check on the patients and their families and you are always so good at checking in to make sure things are going well. You even popped in at the end of your shift before going home last night to see if we needed anything, which was so kind. Keep doing what you do and being you because it makes for a positive experience for EVERYONE INVOLVED! Valley is SO lucky to have you!

NICU nurse Annette Ventoza was recently featured in Seattle Pacific University's "SPU Stories." In 2023, Ventoza was named Washington State Nurse of the Year in the category of Nursing Practice Excellence by the March of Dimes. Congratulations, Annette!

Congratulations to the Valley Family Medicine class of 2024! These recent grads are off to begin their practices at Valley and other organizations around the region. Thank you for all you've done for your patients and colleagues during your residency.