Congratulations Confluence Health CEO Dr. Peter Rutherford for receiving WSHA’s 2021 Joe Hopkins Memorial Award! We presented Dr. Rutherford with the award during last week’s installment of the Annual Meeting eSeries. We are pleased to recognize his exemplary work as Confluence’s chief executive, touching the lives of so many of his neighbors in Central Washington and across the state.
Dr. Rutherford joined Wenatchee Valley Medical Center as a physician in 1990. In 2013, he led the affiliation of two competing Central Washington hospitals – Central Washington Hospital and Wenatchee Valley Medical Center – and brought them together as Confluence Health, serving as CEO of the new organization. Dr. Rutherford served as chair to the WSHA Board of Directors from 2019-2020 was recognized in 2018 as an Outstanding Leader in Health Care by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Under Dr. Rutherford’s leadership, Confluence Health has grown its workforce by 60 percent, opened three new clinic locations — including an on-site partnership with a local employer — and new services and technologies. In addition to Internal Medicine, his clinical interest is predominantly geriatric medicine. He is dedicated to developing a health system that is financially sustainable, improves the value of patient care and ensures local access to a range of safe, high-quality services, while maintaining local leadership in health care. Outside of work, Dr. Rutherford along with his wife Karen enjoy the abundant four seasons of natural resources in the Pacific Northwest such as skiing, mountain biking, and hiking.
The Joe Hopkins Memorial Award is WSHA’s highest honor and is given each year as a lifetime achievement award for a health care leader who has made outstanding contributions to health care in the state, especially to rural health care. Dr. Rutherford’s commitment to patient-centered care and his steadfast determination to helping patients live their healthiest lives make him well deserving of this honor.
Learn more about the Joe Hopkins Memorial Award and WSHA’s other awards online at wsha.org/our-members/awards.
