Maggie McKay (Host): It's an exciting time at Jefferson HealthCare where they've been busy creating new and expanded services. Here to tell us more about them, is COO Jake Davidson. Welcome to To Your Health, a podcast from Jefferson HealthCare. I'm Maggie McKay. Jake, you are Jefferson HealthCare's Chief Operating Officer. So for those who don't know, what does that mean and what do you do?

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: Yeah, absolutely. So I oversee our medical group. So, a majority of our outpatient clinics, from primary care to dermatology, to a lot of our surgeons offices. I oversee our ancillary departments, so lab, imaging, pharmacy, and rehab. And then I oversee the majority of our support services, so EVS, dietary, and projects. And of course projects, the big project we have going on is the new building here at Jefferson HealthCare.

Host: Yeah, that's what we're here to talk about today. A big part of your job lately has been to help oversee the new building that's going up at the hospital. How's the project going so far?

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: It's going well. You know, of course the building was built in 1965, and it also is basically the backbone of our campus, and so, it's been a challenge ensuring that all of our other departments are operational and 24/7. We've got a great team that's working on that complex, removal of the building, which it is no longer with us. It is gone. And, you know, working through getting the site ready for construction. So it's, it's gone well.

Host: So Jefferson HealthCare has big plans for their campus expansion. Tell us about what services you'll be expanding when the new building is complete.

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: We're thrilled, you know. So expanding services, we'll be able to grow our OBGYN clinic, our Dermatology clinic, our Hand and Plastics clinic. And then we will basically be able to have more space for our MED ONC program as well.

Host: And you'll be offering new specialties in the new building as well?

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: Yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's even more cool is that we're going to be expanding services that we provide. And so, we'll be the first critical access hospital in the state of Washington that will have RADONC, radiation oncology for our cancer patients. So, they no longer will have to travel over an hour for that care.

We'll be adding Neurology, Pulmonology, Ear, Nose, and Throat, and Audiology. In addition, we'll have a state of the art outpatient surgery center, which will be awesome for a lot of our minor procedures that we need to do in the ORs. So, we're really thrilled about keeping care local for our patients.

Host: That sounds amazing. What a great facelift. What else will be new for patients during the construction process or once it's complete?

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: You know, I think the biggest is just keeping care local for a lot of those services. We feel that if we can do and provide care here locally at a high quality, we will. And so this facility gives us that ability to do that. Also, for us, a lot of our patients love our cafeteria.

So that's another key piece that I'd like to call out that it will be much bigger. And we'll reopen to the community, which I know a lot of folks will be thrilled about. But, you know, ultimately just providing services to our patients to stay local and often get care that they wouldn't get if they had to travel. So providing better healthcare to our community.

Host: That's rare that a hospital has a good cafeteria. I have to say.

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: Oh, I know.

Host: I have not experienced that where I live.

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: I get that question a lot. Hey, when, when can I come back and eat? So we'll be thrilled to open the doors and welcome everybody back to eat with us.

Host: I wonder if people ever go there just to eat and they're not even

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: Oh, they do. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely.

Host: Is there anything else in closing that you'd like to add?

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: No, I, think, you know, of course construction's always painful and, we're working through it as best as we can. But you know, the light at the end of the tunnel is we're going to have a state of the art facility, that's both safe from earthquakes, cause the old one wasn't, and allows us to provide new services to our community, which is beyond thrilling for us, for the community. And actually for, you know, a lot of our providers that work here now, being able to have access to those services makes their life a lot easier too. So we're just excited about that.

Host: I bet your community is going to be so grateful once it's finished and they have all those amazing specialties, and services. So thank you so much for joining us today. This has been so informative. We appreciate your time.

Jake Davidson, MHA, FACHE: Yeah. Thanks, Maggie. This is great.

Host: Again, that's Jake Davidson. To find out more, please visit jeffersonhealthcare.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. And check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening to To Your Health, a podcast from Jefferson Healthcare.