Volume 2, Number 2  

November 2008

• Letter from the Executive Director
• Report on the work of the Ruckelshaus Center work related to Staffing Legislation
• Report on the work of the NWONE – WSHA Transforming Inpatient Care Proposal
• NWONE’s endorsement of CALNOC and launch of CALNOC into Washington and Oregon
• Election results – your new board members
• Report from the Bylaws Taskforce
• NWONE Visioning Work
• Reports From Your Commissions, Committees and Taskforces
• Education Commission – Update from the Fall Program
• Healthcare Policy Commission – NWONE Legislative Boot-Camp and preparations for the 2008 legislative session
• Nursing Practice Commission – Clinical Summits
• Membership Services Commission – Update on the status of membership and changes in the Membership Services Commission
• Nominating Committee – Call for nominees
• Finance Committee – New Chair introduced – financial update – charitable giving campaign continues
• Bylaws / Strategic Reorganization Taskforce
• NWONE Leadership Awards Program – Time to Nominate Your Colleagues
• Focus on Philanthropy
• Focus on our Members – Members in the News and on the Move  
• Save the Date
• Welcome to our New Members
• Your Leadership – Names and Contact Emails of our Council & Commission Chairs and Officers

Letter from the Executive Director – Gladys Campbell

Dear Colleagues:

It has been a busy and strategic year for your association.   From the success of our legislative activities in the 2008 session, to the completion of changes to our bylaws, the launch of our CALNOC endorsement, and our initiation of the Transforming Inpatient Care project your board and many members have been working hard on activities that we believe serve the full membership of NWONE and position us for influence in the future.  Our focus has been on new strategic initiatives, building new partnerships and on attending to our need for financial security into the future.  With these areas of focus we are also aware that some basic and routine functions of NWONE have languished a bit.  We still struggle with our membership database and with some member renewal processes.  Our NWONE website has not been updated during 2008 as we worked with an outside vendor to redesign the site and as we prepared to change our hosting partner.  We apologize for these flaws in service and hope to remedy these areas with improvement in 2009.  We appreciate your patience and hope any frustration you have experienced is tempered by appreciation for the strategic successes we have had this year.  In this newsletter as we update you on our strategic work we also provide information on our fall program and the work of our Commissions, Committees and Taskforces.  We hope this information is helpful to you. Thank you so much for your membership in NWONE and for your support of the work of this association.  We exist to serve you! 

Sincerely,

Gladys Campbell, Executive Director, NWONE

The Ruckelshaus Project on Staffing Legislation

As you are aware NWONE in collaboration with the Washington Hospital Association, The Washington State Nurses Association, SEIU 1199 NW and the United Staff Nurses Union UFCW was able to jointly craft legislation in the state of Washington resulting in HB 3123. This bill, quite similar to HB 2800 in Oregon mandates the initiation of hospital based staffing committees, the public posting of staffing plans and shift based staffing schedules, and the use of nurse sensitive outcome indicators to evaluate staffing effectiveness.   Once HB 3123 was signed into law the Ruckelshaus Steering Committee continued to meet monthly to assure cooperation and collaboration in the institution of the staffing committees and the processes used to ensure their success.  NWONE is represented in this work by Gladys Campbell your Executive Director of NWONE and Tracey Kasnic, CNO of Central Hospital in Wenachee.  The accomplishments of NWONE and the Ruckelshaus Steering Committee this year include: 

• Leading a dialogue between nurse leaders in Oregon who have experience and success with staffing committees and their colleagues in Washington who were just implementing HB 3123, at the NWONE Spring Medley and meeting of the membership. 
• Surveying all Washington hospitals about their current collection of nurse sensitive outcome data.
• From the survey data choosing 5 NSOI for statewide measurement (falls, falls with injury, hospital acquired pressure ulcer prevalence, NHPPD, and nursing skill mix)
• Webcasts co-hosted by NWONE and the Washington State Hospital Association on:
• HB 3123 and the corresponding Memorandum of Agreement related to nurse staffing
• Nurse Sensitive Outcome Indicators
• The WSHA quality benchmarking system for the collection of NSOI data and
• 2 NWONE webcasts on CALNOC as a system for collection and analysis of NSOI data
• The creation of an education subgroup that hosted two full day conferences on forming staffing committees and staffing, budgeting and scheduling.  Over 600 people attended these two sessions
• The creation of a subgroup to initiate a pilot on the use of a rapid response process to deal with staffing concerns in the workplace.  This process referred to as CSI (Collaborative Staffing Intervention) will be tested at 5 Washington Hospitals (Providence Everett Medical Center, Harrison Medical Center, Highline Medical Center, Skagit Valley Hospital and Central Washington Hospital).  Information from the pilot will be used to recommend extension or revision of the CSI process. 
• The creation of a proposal that went to the Washington Department of Health addressing changes needed to the current adverse event reporting process. 
• Initiation of a November report on the Ruckelshaus Steering Committee work to go to the Washington State Legislature. 

An enormous amount of work has gone into assuring compliance with the Washington State law and Memorandum of Agreement.  We can be proud of that work and the collaboration necessary for the success.  We are also fortunate to be able to transfer learnings and wisdom from Oregon to the work on staffing committees that is now underway in Washington.

Update on the NWONE – WSHA Transforming In-Patient Care Project

As you know from our last newsletter, toward the end of 2007 members of the NWONE leadership team presented the concept of care transformation to the Washington State Hospital Association CEOs.   After that presentation there was much interest expressed by the CEOs on our need, as leaders to transform our care environments to support nurses to spend more time in direct patient care.   During the winter and spring of 2008 the CEOs and CNEs of nine Washington hospitals came together with the leadership of NWONE and WSHA for 3 half day meetings.  During these meetings these participants wrote a formal proposal on the subject of in-patient care transformation.  In July and August this proposal was put before the boards of directors of both WSHA and NWONE and unanimous approval of the proposal was achieved from both organizations.    Since August NWONE and WSHA have been working on fundraising for the project with a plan for project implementation in early 2009. 

The project has two implementation arms:  a rapid cycle improvement arm and a demonstration project arm.  Any hospital in the state of Washington may volunteer to participate in either arm of the proposal. 

The rapid cycle arm gives hospitals the ability to individually test hospital-based inpatient care transformation or improvement efforts and to share outcomes and experiences from the process.  Involved hospitals would implement at least one intervention at a time. As results come in, the hospital could expand the intervention to other units, discontinue the intervention, or try new interventions. Focus groups of organizational stakeholders would be involved in selecting the priorities for transformational change.  Each participating hospital is expected to share their results and learnings in a multi-hospital learning collaborative that would meet on a regular basis.  The learning community that would stem from this process is viewed as critical to creating rapid cycle community learning across and between hospitals in the state.

Multi-hospital demonstration arm involves a group of hospitals working together to implement a set of uniform predetermined interventions in four defined areas of needed transformation: the geography of care or “care spaces”, systems and processes of care, models of care (who delivers the care and how team members work together), and cultures of care delivery.  Predetermined interventions would largely come from direct care providers who are viewed as the experts in needed change.  The hope is to create a controlled “test” environment or incubator, into which the interventions can be implemented and outcomes measured across organizations. Successful Rapid Cycle interventions could be used to “feed” the test interventions of the Demonstration Project.  This part of the project would include specific controls, expectations for data collection and sharing, and would be overseen by a project director. The director would provide onsite assistance and would also ensure compliance with the parameters of the project. Specific evaluation or study metrics would be used to assess outcomes, and consideration would be made in designing the process to support a publishable research project.  Hospitals taking part in this portion would be asked to commit to an effort of several years duration. Hospitals involved in the demonstration arm would also be expected to share their results and learnings in the multi-hospital learning collaborative. 

We hope that all hospitals in the state of Washington will participate in what will be a state-wide initiative.

The nine CEO-CNE teams from various hospitals across the stat of Washington who participated in the writing of the Transforming In-patient Care Proposal include: 

• Joe Kortum and Dan Keteri from SW Washington Medical Center
• Rod Hochman and Traci Hoiting from Swedish Hospital
• Sarah Patterson and Charleen Tachibana from Virginia Mason Hospital
• Nancy Steiger and Faye Lundquist from Peace Health St. Joseph Hospital
• Dave Brooks and Kim Williams from Providence Everett Hospital
• Jon Smiley and Linda Garner from Sunnyside Community Hospital
• Dianne Cecchettini and JoEllen Vanatta from Multicare Health System
• Jack Evans and Tracey Kasnic from Central Washington Hospital
• Frankie Manning and Stan Johnson from the VA

Conversations have also been initiated with OAHHS about bringing this project into the state of Oregon.  With Joe Kortum at SW Washington and Gladys Campbell who lives in Portland, as a co-lead on this project, it could easily be bridged across the state line.  We will keep you informed of progress in this area.

NWONE’s Endorsement of CALNOC and Launch of CALNOC into Washington & Oregon

After several years of deliberation and due diligence, NWONE has decided to formally partner with the Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL) and endorse CALNOC (Collaborative Alliance for Nurse Outcomes) as the database of choice for the analysis of nursing sensitive quality outcomes.  The decision is a practical one.  NWONE exists to serve its members, who are nurse executives and nurse leaders in the state of Washington and Oregon.  To this end we have heard from our membership that they do not need more data, they need evidence based information to help them with both decision making and with their ability to have influence as leaders.   We found that CALNOC was not only very responsive and collaborative with their research, data management and data reports, but was also willing to cut their data based on state, regional and system groupings.  Their data reporting dashboards can be accessed from the desk top computer of any member, within that data site, members can configure various reports in a host of ways and even email data reports quickly and easily. 

Because CALNOC is willing and able to create state based data sets this information can also be used in our legislative conversations and assist us in assuring that these conversations are evidence based and data driven rather than emotional.  

At the September NWONE Fall Program the decision to endorse CALNOC was launched at the meeting of the NWONE membership.  This launch was accompanied by a presentation by Nancy Donaldson and Kathy Harren, a CNO with the Providence Health System during the fall program.  On October 14th and again on October 27th NWONE hosted web-casts to educate the members on CALNOC and why we have endorsed this database.  Either of these webcasts (audio and slides) can be made available to any member.  If you are interested please email Gladys Campbell at gladysc@wsha.org. 

Next steps for those who decide to enroll in CALNOC include:

• Obtaining an reviewing the state based site agreements (contracts) with your CEO/CFO and legal team
• Review and evaluate costs – those who enroll before January 1, 2009 will be allowed to use the 2007 fee structure which on average, represents a 20% reduction of current costs
• Define and select a local CALNOC site administrator, this is not a new FTE, but someone who will function in this capacity as part of their current role
• Sign up for a CALNOC orientation session
• Nov 10th Seattle, WSHA office suite
• Dec 1st, Lake Oswego, OAHHS office suite
• Begin data collection

We sincerely hope that many of you will choose to go on the CALNOC journey with us.  The more organizations that sign-up the stronger our state-based data will be.

Election Results- Your New Board Members

Election results were announced at the fall meeting of the membership during the NWONE Fall Program.  Connie Huber a member of the NWONE Nominating Committee and incoming president of NWONE announced the following new board members:

• Patty Cochrell, Executive Vice President and COO of Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton is the new NWONE President Elect
• Carol Velasquez, Director Perioperative Services at Cascade Medical Center, Bend, Oregon begins her term as Secretary Treasurer on January 1, 2009
• JoEllen Vanatta, System Vice President, CNE, Multicare Health System, Tacoma, is the new Secretary Treasurer Elect
• Traci Hoiting, Chief Nursing Officer, Swedish Health System, Seattle, was elected Chair of the Nursing Practice Commission
• Laurie Brown, CNE St. Franciscan Health System, Tacoma, was re-elected as the Chair of the Membership Services Commission
• Deb Gaspar, Assistant Administrator and CNO, Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Health Center, Portland, is the new Chair for the Commission on Health Care Policy, Oregon

We are grateful to these individuals for their willingness to share their time and talents to serve our association.  Please congratulate them on their election to these NWONE offices. 

Report from the Bylaws Task Force

During the spring and summer the NWONE Bylaws Taskforce, Chaired by Charleen Tachibana, met many times as it developed a proposal for changes to our existing bylaws.  Prior to bringing the proposed changes to a meeting of the membership, the taskforce discussed changes with the Chairs of the NWONE regional councils and put the proposed revisions before the NWONE Board of Directors for their approval.  At the meeting of the membership, at the fall program the proposed changes were reviewed.  After this review the membership voted unanimously to accept the new bylaws as written.  Specific changes to the bylaws can be summarized as follows:

• Section 4.01 – Eligibility for membership was revised
• Section 4.02 – Categories of membership were expanded
• Section 4.05 – All members with the exception of Graduate Members and Affiliate Members are eligible to vote
• Section 5.02 – Term of office of the President and Vice President were extended to 2 years
• Section 5.02 – Succession planning and eligibility requirements for board members were revised
• Section 5.07 – Functions of the officer roles were revised
• Section 6.02 – Composition of the NWONE Board to include:  Elected Officers, an appointed Vice President, Elected Chairs of Commissions, the Executive Director, appointed Regional Council Representatives, appointed Board Liaisons and appointed At-Large Members.
• An appendix was added to outline the composition of the board
• Sections 9.01 & 9.02 – A distinction was made in the bylaws between Regional Council Chairs and Regional Council Board Representatives – though these two roles may be filled by the same person. 

A copy of the new NWONE bylaws are electronically attached to this newsletter for your review.  Questions on the bylaws can go to Gladys Campbell at GladysC@wsha.org or to Charleen Tachibana at Charleen.Tachibana@vmmc.org.

NWONE Visioning Work

As the Bylaws Task force was doing its work there was a realization that bylaws exist to direct and guide an organization to fulfill its mission and vision.  With this, the task force asked the NWONE board to extend its charge to also begin work on a revision of the NWONE vision.  To that end, the NWONE sponsored a full day vision retreat in August.  The retreat was led by Thom Hightower, COO and CNE of Grays Harbor Community Hospital and was facilitated by Kimberly McNally.  Current, past and aspiring NWONE leaders were invited to participate along with some industry leaders who have functioned in partnership with NWONE over the past year. 

This group was in unanimous agreement that a revision of the current NWONE vision was in order and took the first steps in exploration around what a new vision statement might include.  This work was expanded by input from the membership at the fall program and meeting of the membership, and will be continued by the members of the bylaws/vision task force: Charleen Tachibana, Patty Crome, Barbara Hyland-Hill, Cathe Clapp, Karen McHenry, Kimberly McNally and Thom Hightower.  If you have interest in joining this group please contact Gladys Campbell at GladysC@WSHA.org. 

Reports From Your Commissions, Committees and Task Forces

• Education Commission
• Healthcare Policy Commission Nursing Practice Commission
• Membership Services Commission Nominating Committee – Call for nominees
• Finance Committee

Education Commission

With the resignation of the Chair of the Education Commission, Gladys Campbell the NWONE Executive Director has filled this role.  September 10th – 12th the Commission hosted the annual NWONE Fall Program at the Oregon Convention Center and the Lloyd Center DoubleTree Hotel.  There were two NWONE “firsts” at this event.  It was our first time in a convention center, and for the first time we attached pre-conferences onto our fall program.  Both pre-conferences were a great success.  Stacey Nelson from Vital Smarts did a half day program on Crucial Confrontations and Meredith Gould, Chair of the NWONE Health Care Policy Commission hosted our second annual Legislative Boot Camp.  The regular programming opened with an educational and hilarious presentation from Donna Wright of Creative Health Care Management and proceeded on Thursday and Friday with presentations focused on the topic of “Influence”.  Stacy Nelson introduced the new Vital Smarts publication, Influencer, Kimberly McNally and Joanne Disch presented influence from the perspective of board service, Diane Cecchetini and Nancy Steiger presented a CEO panel on influence from the C-Suite.  Additionally Pam Hunt who presented on Staffing, Scheduling and Budgeting, and Holly DeGroot who presented on Evidence Based Administrative Practice were well received.  Feedback on the program was positive and we enjoyed strong attendance from both members and our industry partners. 

The commission is now hard at work planning for the upcoming Spring Medley and the Fall Program for 2009.  We hope to see you at all of the following events:

• November 10, 2008 Washington State CALNOC orientation to be held at the WSHA office suites, 300 Elliott Ave West, Suite 300, Seattle, Washington (site may be changed if a larger venue is needed!)
• December 1, 2008 Oregon State CALNOC orientation to be held at the OAHHS office suites in Lake Oswego, Oregon (site may be changed if a larger venue is needed!)
• March 5 & 6, 2009 NWONE Spring Medley – Hilton Airport Hotel and Conference Center, SeaTac, Washington
• March 24, 2009 Washington State J&J Gala, Marriott Waterfront Hotel – Seattle, Washington
• September 9,10.11, 2009 Fall Program – Riverfront Marriott, Downtown Portland, Oregon

Meetings of the Education Commission are held monthly by conference call.  If you are interested in joining the commission please contact Gladys Campbell at gladysc@wsha.org.

Healthcare Policy Commission

The Healthcare Policy Commission, lead by Meredith Gould in Washington and Nancy Connell in Oregon, has engaged in monthly conference calls with members from both states and including the health policy staff from WSHA and OAHHS.  The commission spent a significant amount of time this year planning for our second annual legislative boot-camp which was a wonderful success.  Presentations by Lisa Thatcher, Taya Briely, and Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson of Oregon District 25, covered topics from “How a Bill Becomes a Law” to building relationships with legislators, transparency is staffing, scheduling and quality outcomes and overviews of the pending sessions in both states.  Over 80 participants enjoyed the full day program and were given the opportunity to sign up as nurses to potentially offer state level testimony, if needed. 

Members in both states are planning now for the pending legislative session and are working with their hospital association colleagues to set up relationship building meetings with the legislators.

For further information about the commission, or to join this workgroup, please contact Meredith Gould at Meredith.gould@seattlechildrens.org or Nancy Connell at ncconnell@comcast.net.

Nursing Practice Commission

The Nursing Practice Commission sponsored three clinical summits this year, one on fatigue in nursing with Anne Rogers as the guest speaker and co-sponsored with the Washington State Nursing Association, one on Retaining and Restoring Nurses in Recovery conducted in collaboration with the Washington State Nurses Association, the Oregon State Nurses Association, the Washington and Oregon Centers for Nursing and the Oregon Foundation for Nursing.  Lastly the Commission sponsored a summit on Care Transformation on October 30, 2008 at the Cedarbrook Leadership Center in SeaTac.  This program highlighted the NWONE-WSHA Transforming In-patient Care project, Peace Health Longview which is a national TCAB site and the innovations that have transformed the Puget Sound VA System.  

The Clinical Summits are smaller, focused clinical programs that bring education to the members but also allow time for dialogue and exchange on a singular topic.  To date these more intimate programs have been very well received by the membership.  A future program in development is under discussion and we are open to your suggestions for featured topics.  

For further information on the Education Commission, to become involved or to suggest potential summit topics please contact Traci Hoiting at traci.hoiting@swedish.org.

Membership Support Services Commission

The Membership Support Services Commission, chaired by Laurie Brown, has maintained NWONE’s membership at over 500 members.  The commission led two major changes through the membership Support Services Commission this year; Regional Council Chairs/representatives were made formal members of the commission to create stronger communication linkages between NWONE and the regions, and the role of the Regional Chair was altered to allow that chair to appoint a representative to the NWONE board if s/he did not want to fulfill this role.  With this change it is an expectation that all Regional Councils will have a NWONE board representative formally appointed by March 5, 2009.  The appointment of representatives from the regions who come to board meetings is considered essential to the integrity of NWONE and for this reason this change was embedded into the revised NWONE bylaws.  Regional Councils who do not have an appointed regional representative by the March 5th deadline will no longer be acknowledged by NWONE. 

The Membership Support Services Commission also began to dialogue with the members on a potential expansion of member benefits.  This dialogue began at the fall program, meeting of the membership and will continue into 2009.  As NWONE gains a stronger financial footing we want to appropriately give back to the members in ways that are viewed as value added. 

If you are interested in participating on the Membership Support Services Commission, or if you have ideas to help with our membership campaign, please contact Laurie Brown at lauriebrown@fhshealth.org.

Report From the Nominating Committee

In her role as our “soon to be” Immediate Past President, Gloria Larson will become the Chair of the 2009 Nominating Committee.  Beyond creating our annual ballot for new officers, this committee is committed to strong succession planning all year long.  If you are interested in becoming a candidate for a position on the NWONE Board of Directors, or if you know someone that you think would be a strong leader for NWONE please contact Gloria at glorialarson@chiwest.com.

Report From the Finance Committee 

Susan Health, as the Chair for the Finance Committee is leading this committee’s work in preparing the 2009 NWONE budget for review by the Board of Directors and in the development of the organization’s financial strategic plan for 2009.  Susan has led the committee out of two years of deficit and into financial margin this fiscal year.  Additionally this year, the Finance Committee has proposed the initiation of an active philanthropy plan and of the addition of an At Large Board Member whose focus is on philanthropy. 

If you are interested in serving on this committee or have ideas for fundraising, or if you are interested in making a donation to NWONE please contact Susan at susan.heath@seattlechildrens.org.

Focus on Philanthropy

As part of NWONE’s program to diversity revenue streams we are beginning an active campaign to solicit donations to the organization which is a 501C3 nonprofit.  The organization is focused on donations ear-marked in 4 areas:

1. Unrestricted donations to NWONE that can be used as the organization sees fit to support either routine operations or special projects
2. Restricted donations made to NWONE with specific requirements for use set forth by the giver
3. Donations to the NWONE – WSHA Transforming In-Patient Care project
4. Donations to the Karen Haase-Herrick fund for Research and Education.  This charitable fund was established in 2006 to honor our past Executive Director of NWONE. 

We ask that each member consider a donation to NWONE.  Donations to a specific fund or non-restricted donations of any kind are warmly appreciated and would help to continue to support the financial health and future viability of your association.  Please consider a financial gift to NWONE as you do your end of year financial planning. 

NWONE Leadership Awards Program – Time to Nominate Your Colleagues

At the NWONE 2008 Spring Medley, we launched an annual award for Authentic Leadership.  As many of you are aware, authentic leadership is one of the defined standards for a healthy work environment.  At the August Board meeting the NWONE board made the decision to make this an annual award and to add an additional award for Recognition of a Distinguished Career. 

The Authentic Leadership Award honors a nurse leader of distinction, in any leadership role, who is in active practice in the Pacific Northwest and who displays specific characteristics (defined in the award application) consistent with authentic leadership.

The award for Recognition of a Distinguished Career honors a nurse who has given of his or her time and talents to the profession through both their career path and through active volunteer service to professional organizations.  This individual will have made contributions to the profession through publications, research and/or teaching or public speaking.  Frequently they are people who have influenced and mentored many, who have served in varied capacities across their profession and who have service beyond employment to the nursing community.  The specific characteristics of such a leader are defined in the award nomination form.

Nominations for both awards will be accepted by NWONE through February 1, 2009. Awards in these areas will be given out at the 2009 Spring Medley.  We hope that you will take the time to recognize, honor and nominate a worthy nurse leader that you know.  As leaders we are often the people who recognize and reward others, but rarely take the time to honor each other.  The nominations for both awards are attached to this email.  Please take the time to nominate a deserving colleague.  Nominations are to be forwarded to Gladys Campbell, NWONE, Executive Director at 300 Elliott Ave West, Suite #300, Seattle, Washington 98119 or emailed to gladysc@wsha.org.  

Focus on our Members – Members in the News and on the Move!

If you or someone you know has made a job change, received a promotion, won an award or have recently given a presentation or published an article, please let NWONE know so that we can honor you and let your colleagues know of your activities.  Send information to Gladys Campbell at gladysc@wsha.org.

• Cindy May has accepted the CNO position at Harrison Medical Center
• Deborah Burton has been named as the first system-wide CNE for Providence Health and Services
• Charleen Tachibana was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Pacific Lutheran School of Nursing
• Michael Bleigh has begun his role as the new Dean at the OHSU School of Nursing
• Marla Salmon has begun her role as the new Dean at the UW School of Nursing
• Pam Smith has accepted a with Versant as the Associate Vice President for Evaluation and Content Development .
• Jean Clark has accepted the CNO position at Sunnyside Hospital
• Meredith Gould has accepted the position of Associate Chief Nursing Officer, Children’s Hospital, Seattle
• Eileen Whaler, RN has been named as the New CEO of Harborview
• Major General Patricia Horoho is the new Chief Nurse at the Madigan Army Medical Center.
  

Save the Date

November 10, 2008  
Washington State CALNOC orientation  
Washington State Hospital Association Office Suite
300 Elliott Ave West
Seattle, WA 98119
(site may be changed to accommodate group size)

December 1, 2008  
Oregon State CALNOC orientation  
Oregon Association of Hospitals & Health Services Office Suite
Lake Oswego, Oregon
(site may be changed to accommodate group size)

March 5, 2009  
NWONE Board Meeting  
Airport Hilton, SeaTac, Washington

March 5 – 6, 2009  
NWONE Spring Medley & Meeting of the Membership  
Airport Hilton, SeaTac, Washington

April 15 – 19, 2009  
AONE 42nd Annual Meeting & Exposition  
San Antonio, Texas

June 11 & 12, 2009  
NWONE Board Meeting  
WSHA Office Suite, Seattle, Washington

September 9, 2009  
NWONE Board Meeting  
Marriott Riverfront Portland, Oregon

September 9,10,11, 2009  
NWONE Fall Program & Meeting of the Membership  
Marriott Riverfront Portland, Oregon

November 12 & 13, 2009  
NWONE Board Meeting  
WSHA Office Suite, Seattle, Washington  

Council Meetings

Please refer to the list of board members to find the name and contact information for your regional council meetings. 

Welcome To Our New Members!

Anjanette Allard
Clinical Manager
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle, WA
anjanette.allard@seattlechildrens.org   

Debbie Amos
Surgical Svc Director
Sunnyside Community Hospital
Sunnyside, WA
debbie.amos@sunnysidehospital.org   

Katherine Baxter
Care Management Mananger
Whidbey General Hospital
Coupeville, WA
baxtek@whidbeygen.org

Lovella Bowers
House Supervisor
Sunnyside Community Hospital
Sunnyside, WA
lovella.bowers@sunnysidehospital.org   

Phyllis Cartmel
RN, BSN
Children's Hospital
Seattle, WA
phyllis.cartmel@seattlechildrens.org   

Alice Dupler
Asst. Dean Advancement
WSU College of Nursing
Spokane, WA 99218
adupler@wsu.edu

Karen Ellis
Manager Patient Care Support
St. Charles Medical Center - Bend
Bend, OR
kellis@scmc.org   

Susan Ellison
Director of Nursing
Legacy Meridian Park Hospital
Tualatin, OR
sellison@lhs.org   

Brenda Herr
DNS & Trauma Svc Coord
Columbia Basin Hospital
Ephrata WA
herb@columbiabasinhospital.org

Kim Johnson
RN, BSN
Shriners Hospital
Spokane, WA

Michael Kinman
COO
Snoqualmie Valley Hospital
Snoqualmie WA
michaelk@snoqualmiehospital.org   

Gail Longhi
Nurse Manager
University WA Med Center
Seattle, WA
longhi@u.washington.edu

Christina Mason
Clinical Operations Manager
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle, WA
christina.mason@seattlechildrens.org   

Laura Meacham
Manager Critical Care
St. Clare Hospital
Lakewood, WA
laurameacham@fhshealth.org   

Lisa Noland
CNO
Valley Hospital & Medical Center
Spokane Valley, WA

Kristie Page
Clinical Practice Manager
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle, WA
kristie.page@seattlechildrens.org   

Jason Sargent
House Supervisor
Sunnyside Community Hospital
Sunnyside WA
jason.sargent@sunnysidehospital.org   

Brandi Young
Staff Development Coord
Tillamook County General Hospital
Tillamook, OR
youngbl@ah.org

Your NWONE Leadership

2008 Officers and Board of Directors

President
Gloria Larson
Vice President, Patient Care Services
St. Anthony Hospital
1601 SE Court Avenue Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone: 541-278-3257 FAX: 541-278-3227
E-Mail: glorialarson@chiwest.com
Term Expires:  December 31, 2008

President Elect
Connie Huber
Assistant Administrator, Patient Care Services
Providence St. Peter Hospital
413 N. Lilly Road
Olympia, Washington 98606
Phone: 360-493-7329
E-Mail: Connie.Huber@providence.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Vice President
Thom Hightower
COO & CNO
Grays Harbor Community Hospital
915 Anderson Drive
Aberdeen, Washington 98520
Phone: 360-532-8330
E-Mail:  thightower@whnet.org
Term Expires:  December 31, 2008

Secretary/Treasurer & Chair Finance Committee
Susan Heath
Nurse Executive & Administrator
Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center
PO Box 5371 M/S PL-1 Seattle, WA 98105-0371
Phone: 206-987-2012 FAX: 206-987-5022
E-Mail: susan.heath@seattlechildrens.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Secretary/Treasurer Elect
Carol Velasquez, Assistant Vice President
St. Charles Medical Center
2500 NW Neff Road
Bend, Oregon 97701
Phone: 541-322-2780
Fax: 541-318-4948
E-Mail: cvelasquez@cascadehealthcare.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008   

Immediate Past President & Chair, Nominations Committee
Charleen Tachibana
Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
Virginia Mason Medical Center
17626 NW 136th St. Redmond, WA 98052
Phone: 206-341-0419 FAX: 206-223-6976
E-Mail: Charleen.Tachibana@vmmc.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

At Large Board Member
Karen McHenry
Director of Systems
Virginia Mason MC Neuroscience Institute
1100 Ninth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Email: Karen.McHenry@comcast.net
Term Expires: December 31, 2010   

Chair, Northwest (WA) Council
Fran Gray, CNE
United General Hospital
2000 Hospital Drive
Sedro Woolley, Washington 98284
Phone: 206-856-7113
Fax: 360-856-7204
Term Expires: December 31, 2009   

Chair, Southeast (WA) Council
Jeannie Eyler
Chief Clinical Officer
Pullman Regional Hospital
Washington Avenue
Pullman, WA 99163-4742
Phone: 509-336-7405
FAX: 509-332-4242
E-Mail: jeylar@pmhl.org
Term Expires:  December 21, 2009

Co-Chairs, Seattle Area (WA) Council & Representative to WHA Board
Susan Heath
Nurse Executive & Administrator
Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center
PO Box 5371 M/S PL-1 Seattle, WA 98105-0371
Phone: 206-987-2012 FAX: 206-987-5022
E-Mail: susan.heath@seattlechildrens.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Pamela Smith
Associate VP for Education and Development
Versant
Term Expires: December 31, 2009  

Co-Chairs, Pierce-Kitsap Co. (WA) Council
Patricia Cochrell, BC, MBA, CAN
Vice President, Operations
Harrison Medical Center
2520 Cherry Ave.  Bremerton, WA 98310
Phone: 360-792-6702 FAX:
E-Mail: PattyCochrell@hmh.westsound.net
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Chair, Southwest (WA) Council
Thom Hightower
Chief Operating Officer
Grays harbor Community Hospital
915 Anderson Drive
Aberdeen, Washington 98520
Phone: 360-532-8330
E-Mail:  thightower@whnet.org
Term Expires:  December 31, 2009

Chair, South Central Washington Council
Lori Murray
Assistant VP for Nursing Services
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital
2811 Tieton Drive
Yakima, Washington 98902
Phone: 509-249-5175
E-Mail: lori.murray@yvmh.org
Term Expires:  December 31, 2010

Co-Chairs, Portland (OR) Council
Lani Gaskill
Site Director, Patient Care
Legacy Salmon Creek
2211 NE 139th Street Vancouver, WA 98683
Phone: 360-487-3452 FAX: 360-487-3459
Cell: 360-635-7130
E-Mail: lgaskill@lhs.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Chair, Eastern (OR) Council
Doug Romer
Executive Director, Patient Care
Grande Ronde Hospital
PL Box 3290
LaGrande, OR 97850
Phone : 541-963-1460
FAX : 541-962-2502
Term Expires : December 31, 2009

Chair, Central (OR) Council
Cheryl Taylor
DNS
Pioneer Memorial Hospital
1201 N. Elm Prineville, OR 97754
Phone: 541-447-6254 FAX: 541-447-6705
E-Mail: cjtaylor@pmhprineville.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008   

Chair, Willamette (OR) Council
Katherine Schiffer
Patient Care Executive
Sacred Heart Medical Center PO Box 10905
Eugene, OR 97440-2905
Phone: 541-335-2511 FAX: 541-686-3699
E-Mail: kschiffer@peacehealth.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Chair, Southern (OR) Council
Anne Shevlin
Magnet Program Manger
Assante Health System
2825 Barnett Road
Medford, Oregon
Phone: 541-789-4376
FAX: 541-789-5870
E-mail: ashevlin@asante.org
Term Expires : December 31, 2010

Chair, Commission on Education
Gladys Campbell, Interim Chair
GladysC@WSHA.org

Chair, Commission on Healthcare Policy for Washington
Meredith Gould
Associate Chief Nurse Officer
Seattle Children’s Medical Center
PO Box 5371 M/S PL – 1
Seattle, Washington 98105-0371
Phone: 206-987-6203
E-Mail: Meredith.gould@seattlechildrens.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2010   

Interim Chair, Commission on Healthcare Policy for Oregon
Nancy Connell
E-Mail: ncconnell@comcast.net
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

Chair Commission on Member Support Services
Laurie Brown
Director, Care Management Services
St. Joseph Medical Center
1711 South J Street
Box 2197 Tacoma, WA 98405
Phone: 253-426-6135
FAX: 253-426-4192
E-Mail: lauriebrown@fhshealth.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2010   

Chair, Commission on Nursing Practice
Traci Hoiting
CNO
Swedish Medical Center
747 Broadway
Seattle, Washington 98122-4307
Phone: 206-386-6000
E-Mail: traci.hoiting@swedish.org
Interim Appointment Expired December 31, 2010

OAHHS Board Member (ex-officio)
Carol Kunau
Vice President, Patient Care Services
Adventist Medical Center
10123 SE Market Portland, OR 97216
Phone: 503-251-6150 FAX: 503-261-6638
E-Mail: kunauCM@ah.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2011   

OCN Board Member (ex-officio)
Nancy Connell|
E-Mail: nconnell@comcast.net
Term Expires: December 31, 2008

WCN Board Member (ex-officio)
Barbara Trehearne
Executive Director, Nursing Operations
Group Health Corp. Office
521 Wall St. M/S Nursing Ops 378 Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 206-448-6433 FAX: 206-448-6151
E-Mail: trehearne.b@ghc.org
Term Expires: December 31, 2008   

Executive Director, NWONE (ex-officio)
Gladys Campbell
300 Elliott Ave West, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone: 206-285-0102 Cell: 503-422-8236
FAX: 206-283-6122
E-Mail: gladysc@wsha.org

Executive Coordinator, NWONE
Jean Engler
300 Elliott Ave West., Suite 300 Seattle, WA 98119
E-Mail: jeane@wsha.org