New Harborview CEO lists staff burnout, racial equity among priorities
For more than 18 months, health care workers have worked on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, with unprecedented patient volumes and high caseloads. To many, the stress of the job was cause enough to leave the industry, leaving systems across the country scrambling to fill clinical and non-clinical positions.
At Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, CEO Sommer Kleweno Walley said providers and staff are in the most challenging position she's witnessed during her 24 years at the hospital.
Kleweno Walley was named Harborview's interim CEO in the early stages of the pandemic. In September, she was given the permanent job. One of her top priorities is addressing burnout brought on by Covid-19.
"It is hard when your workforce is tired, feeling underappreciated from the community," she said in October. "What we have done at Harborview is try really hard to tie everybody back to the mission of why you came here. We're tying it back, also, to the future. People talk about pandemics as portals to a new world. How do we transform the world for the better?"
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/11/02/kleweno-walley-harborview-priorities.html