Whitefish hospital fills key positions

After months of transitions, North Valley Hospital has announced that it has filled three key positions with new leadership in recent weeks.

Catherine Todd, the senior director of community relations, said the hospital selected Dr. Jason Cohen to take on the role of chief medical officer with Dr. Ryan Gunlikson as chief of staff.

“This was a pretty simple process in that there wasn’t any major event that created an opening or an external search,” Todd said. “Both physicians who were selected were on staff already.”

The announcement came a month after the board tapped Tate Kreitinger as the hospital’s chief executive officer. Kreitinger — who is also the chief executive officer of the HealthCenter in Kalispell — had been interim CEO.

Kreitinger replaced Jason Spring, who stepped down in May to become the chief executive provider network integration at Kalispell Regional Healthcare. Spring chose to leave North Valley after the Whitefish hospital entered an affiliation with the Kalispell healthcare system in May.

TODD SAID Cohen stepped up as the chief medical officer after Dr. Ron Miller retired from the position after working for the hospital in various roles since 1972.

Cohen’s new role includes working as an intermediary between medical staff and hospital leadership to advocate for needs of the medical staff and the community.

Cohen said he was excited to accept the role just two months after North Valley created its affiliation with Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

“[The affiliation is] an opportunity for the community to see more options in health-care services,” he said. “I look forward to helping create more care options and clearer access for patients.”

Cohen said he wants to help streamline the process of collaborating with Kalispell Regional to connect patients in the Flathead Valley and surrounding rural areas to improved health care options.

Before relocating to Montana in 2011, Dr. Cohen was a member of the teaching faculty at the University of New Mexico, where he taught residents and medical students and worked in quality improvement and standardization.

Cohen is certified in internal medicine and has been a hospitalist for North Valley Hospital since 2013. He previously worked at Marcus Daly Hospital, a rural critical access hospital in Hamilton, before taking on the role of quality lead.

For two years, Cohen traveled to North Valley Hospital each month as an inpatient physician before accepting the position of chief medical officer this month.

“I see that people feel valued here and ideas from staff at all levels are heard by leadership,” Cohen said. “I appreciate that North Valley Hospital is able to cultivate that kind of environment.”

The chief of staff works as an advocate for the medical staff at the board level. Gunlikson was nominated for the one-year position by the hospital medical staff.

During his term, Gunlikson will work as a liaison for physicians to the board and alternatively will also discuss board decisions with medical staff.

A certified general surgeon with North Valley Surgical Services, Gunlikson has been on staff at North Valley Hospital since 1999.

Gunlikson is a native of the Flathead Valley and attended Montana State University, University of Washington and University of Colorado before returning to the Flathead as a surgeon in Whitefish.

Gunlikson last served as North Valley’s chief of staff in 2008, though he said a lot of the medical world had changed in the last eight years.

Gunlikson said his new role will allow him to focus on North Valley Hospital’s patient care at a board level as the hospital collaborates with Kalispell Regional. He said it will be important to maintain the Whitefish hospital’s unique identity as a Planetree facility throughout the process.

“I’m enthusiastic about being involved in the hospital at a more in-depth level again and exploring new directions and opportunities in this role,” he said. “I want to be engaged in the process and show that we care about what we do here at North Valley.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.