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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017    

A COMMUNITY MESSAGE

Restoring Trust
at Swedish
by Dr. Rod Hochman
Swedish Health Services has been in the news
a lot lately. Questions have been raised about
the behavior of top leadership, and about
communication breakdowns that undermined trust
among Swedish caregivers and the community.
As the leader of Providence St. Joseph Health, a diverse
family of organizations that serves seven states and
includes Swedish, I am ultimately accountable for the
successes and mistakes of the hospitals in our system. I
apologize to the caregivers, physicians, patients and
community for the pain the current situation has
caused. You deserved better from us — and from me. I
hope we can learn from this and move forward stronger
and more compassionate.
My connection to Swedish runs
deep. I served as the CEO of
Swedish from 2007 to 2012,
and I personally know the
professionalism, commitment
and skill of the caregivers and
medical staff there. Seattle is
my home and Swedish is where
my family and I receive medical
care. I live just blocks from the
Swedish First Hill campus.

All of us at Providence St. Joseph Health, including
Swedish, continue to believe passionately in putting
our patients first and providing high-quality, safe care
to everyone we serve.
This mission is intensely personal for me. A few years
ago, my older daughter underwent brain surgery at a
different institution (due to her insurance at the time).
What was supposed to be a 90-minute surgery lasted
seven hours and led to massive complications that put
her in the ICU twice. At one point, my wife and I were
told she wouldn’t make it. I thank God every day that she
survived and is back to a normal life. This experience
brought home for me a deeper understanding of the
vulnerability of patients and
their families.
You may have read about Talia
Goldenberg and the tragic
outcome at the Swedish Cherry
Hill campus three years ago.
The situation was devastating
for all involved, and my heart
goes out to Talia’s loved ones
and the team who cared for
her. I was deeply moved by
what her mother wrote in her
recent op-ed, and I agree with
her. She is right — this should
never happen anywhere. Despite our best efforts,
unintended events occur at even the most respected
institutions in the country. When they happen, we
must learn from them and do everything in our power
to help prevent them from happening again. That is
what the team at Cherry Hill did immediately after
this event.

This mission
is intensely
personal
for me

Providence St. Joseph Health is
a not-for-profit health system that encompasses 50
hospitals, 829 clinics and many other health and social
services. As a parent organization, we depend on
strong, independent chief executives in all our regions
and partner organizations to make decisions in the
best interest of their community. We are proud of
Swedish and consider it a flagship institution in our
system.
I want to emphasize that when it comes to Swedish, Dr.
Guy Hudson, the interim CEO of Swedish, is in charge.
He has the authority, autonomy and accountability to
act on behalf of Swedish patients, caregivers and the
community. Dr. Hudson also has my full confidence
and complete support.

We are all learning from what happened at Swedish
and improving. I’m confident that Dr. Hudson and the
highly dedicated caregivers at Swedish will succeed
in restoring trust and moving ahead, better than
ever. Together, we will continue to make sure that
the Swedish commitment to high quality, safe care
remains strong and unwavering.

I am painfully aware that Swedish caregivers have not
always felt heard in recent years. But with Dr. Hudson
at the helm, I am confident Swedish has the strong
leadership it needs to rebuild trust and bring back
the culture they worked so hard to uphold and our
community deserves. I will do all I can to ensure that
Dr. Hudson has everything he needs from Providence St.
Joseph Health to successfully restore trust at Swedish.

Dr. Rod Hochman is the president and CEO of Providence St.
Joseph Health, a not-for-profit health and social services system
based in Renton, Wash., with 110,000 caregivers serving across
seven states. He was the CEO of Swedish from 2007-2012.

    News A5