Kalispell Regional President Velinda Stevens dies

Kalispell Regional Healthcare President Velinda Stevens died early Sunday morning after a long battle with breast cancer, according to hospital officials.

Curtis Lund, KRH board of trustees chairman, said Stevens died just before 4 a.m. on Jan. 22. She was 64. Lund said the state lost a “visionary leader” whose legacy will impact the community for generations.

“The people of Montana have lost one of their most passionate health-care advocates,” he said. “Those of us who had the good fortune of knowing and working with Velinda will miss our treasured friend and inspiring mentor.”

Lund will act as the hospital’s interim chief executive officer as the hospital board conducts a formal search for Stevens’ successor. Members of the Kalispell Regional Senior Leadership Team will balance additional responsibilities to work with Lund through the transition.

Throughout her 18 years at Kalispell Regional, Stevens was a voice for expanding health care in Northwest Montana. Since her leadership began at the hospital in 1999, the organization’s number of employees increased from 1,200 to 4,000.

In a 2016 letter, Stevens wrote to the community that she never found a place equal to the Flathead Valley.

“We live in a special place. Because of that, our valley has grown significantly over the past 10 years,” she wrote. “As the population increases, so does the need for health-care services and specialty care.”

STEVENS was 19 when she found her first job at a teaching hospital in her home state of Texas as a phlebotomist, someone who draws patients’ blood. She spent the rest of her life working in hospitals.

In a 1999 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Stevens said she was pulled toward a career in health because she liked working with doctors.

“I find them to be advocates for patients. They’re perfectionists and highly competitive, and that produces an atmosphere for excellence,” she said.

Before moving to the Flathead Valley, Stevens studied health-care systems in other countries through a fellowship that compared America’s health-care structure to countries around the world. After that, she worked as a consultant for larger, nonprofit hospitals that faced quality or financial problems.

When Stevens joined Kalispell Regional in 1999, the health-care industry faced a shrinking payment source as managed-care companies and federal agencies scaled back hospital reimbursements rates. Stevens entered an environment of rollbacks and sweeping administrative cuts as the hospital tried to absorb a 17 percent cut.

“Hundreds of hospitals were closing, and [others] were trying to limit what they were doing,” said Jim Oliverson, the vice president of Kalispell Regional Medical Center. “Velinda did the opposite and said we’re going to forge forward.”

Stevens organized a cost study that compared Kalispell Regional’s expenses to other hospitals — the obstetrics unit and emergency room were the first departments analyzed. Prices of radiology services were cut, and a 15 percent discount was given to all insurers.

Simultaneously, Stevens pushed for an $8 million hospital infrastructure renovation. Before the upgrade, the 25-year-old hospital’s plumbing was so outdated one of its floors was without hot water, depending on the day and hour.

“We’re trying to build another 25 years into the building,” Stevens told the Inter Lake a year after she began her position at Kalispell Regional. “We’re keeping this hospital no matter what.”

Stevens’ focus shifted from helping the hospital survive to working toward it becoming a medical destination. But her voice was often missing from news articles announcing hospital developments. Oliverson said unlike some hospital CEOs, Stevens viewed herself as the machine behind the organization, “not so much the face of the organization.”

Oliverson was the hospital’s interim CEO when Stevens was hired. Her first month on the job, Oliverson brought Stevens to a Rotary Club meeting to talk about the hospital’s future.

“As we walked out of the room, she reached over with her finger and touched my hand and said, ‘This is the last one, Oliverson. The rest are yours,’” he said.

He said while some people saw Stevens as shy, she was an uncommon force within the hospital’s walls and community.

When cameras were put aside, he said Stevens occasionally donned a pair of scrubs and worked a shift alongside nurses. Oliverson said in those quiet interactions, she identified needed changes and tried to use her title as CEO to make it happen.

“When she wasn’t working, which wasn’t often, she was in the mountains,” he said, adding that she somehow found ways to combine the two. “Once, she signed a new physician’s employment contract part way through a hike in [Glacier].”

Roughly 17 years after Stevens asked for hospital upgrades that gave patients consistent hot water, a health-care giant is growing around the structure.

In 2013, Kalispell Regional completed a $42 million, 130,446-square-foot, surgical tower that strengthened the hospital’s ability to juggle surgeries, emergencies and trauma cases.

Last fall, Kalispell Regional Medical Center and North Valley Hospital finalized an affiliation years in the making that brought the Whitefish hospital under the Kalispell Regional Healthcare umbrella.

As the hospital wrapped up a $14 million expansion of the emergency services department last year, it announced a 19,000-square-foot pediatric center as an effort to keep families in the valley for care. The center is also expanding its digestive health with a projected 25,000-square-foot building construction project.

As an effort to continue Stevens’ vision of health-care growth in the Flathead, her family established The Velinda Stevens Endowment for Women and Children through the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation.

The Stevens family wrote in a statement they were “grateful for the outpouring of support” and asked for privacy during their mourning.

“Velinda loved this community, and it’s humbling to know how much this community loved her in return,” a family member told the hospital.

The Stevens family requested donations be made to either the endowment or the ALERT program instead of sending flowers.

Oliverson said he and Stevens never talked about her diagnosis. He said working at a hospital, employees often don’t ask question when a coworker becomes a patient, because “personal was personal.

“When we discovered she was ill, we respected her privacy, like she would if I was sick,” he said. “So I knew, but it was still a hard surprise Sunday morning. But what a great thing, to work toward what you love up into the end of your life, I mean wow, what a legacy. Just, wow.”

Cards and letters can be sent to:

KRH Administration

310 Sunnyview Lane

Kalispell, MT, 59901

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