Dan Grigg, CEO of Wallowa Community Hospital in Enterprise, Ore., was a teenager when he understood the importance of access to care close to where people live, especially in rural parts of the state. Maintaining and growing access to essential services in rural Oregon has been a guiding principle in his career.

When hospitals can’t transfer patients to the next appropriate level of care, fewer beds are available for community members in need. In this episode of our podcast, Hospital 101, Salem Health President and CEO Cheryl Wolfe describes the emergency department boarding challenge at Salem Hospital, and how the creative use of a nearby critical access hospital has helped ease the problem in the community while providing better care to patients.

“Structurally, the pandemic fundamentally changed the health care system.” Becky Hultberg, president and CEO, explains why hospitals are still struggling financially even though the worst days of the pandemic are […]