JACKSON, Wyo. — St. John’s Hospital District Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Pam Cutler is seeking a second term.
Cutler was trained in emergency medicine and, before her tenure with St. John’s, spent her career in hospitals in Colorado, Montana and New Mexico, plus summers overseeing the Lake Hospital in Yellowstone National Park. She said she hopes another term on the board will allow her to keep working toward goals including increasing the number of primary care providers in the community and improving the hospital’s financial status. Another area of focus for her is quality and safety.
“There’s an axiom that says, ‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure,'” Cutler told Buckrail.
She explained that health care professionals can use the acronym STEEEP to measure patient satisfaction and hospital performance: those letters stand for safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient-centered. “We try to find measures that reflect those things; if you want to see if [a hospital] is effective or not, ask, how many surgeries have good outcomes? How many times do people have complications? … For ‘efficient,’ how much money do we spend, how many dollars do we spend on one treatment? How do the patients feel about it?”
Prior to being elected to the board, Cutler spent a term as an advisor. She said she feels the board is valuable, and she aims to encourage the community to appreciate St. John’s and the work done there.
“This hospital is an amazing place, and I feel like I have a lot of skills and a background that understands rural health care from, really, all aspects,” she said. She added, “It’s really fun to be able to feel like I’m making a difference. It really means a lot to be able to contribute.”
The hospital board race is uncontested; three incumbent candidates (including Cutler) are looking to hold onto the three open seats. Brent Blue and Katharine Conover-Keller also appear on the ballot. Election day is Nov. 3, and early voting is now open.
