Judy Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center, was named to the board of the American Hospital Association, a national advocacy nonprofit.
The group, founded in 1898, counts nearly 5,000 hospitals and health-care organizations as its members, with nine regional policy boards representing different areas of the country.
The Tucson executive recently became chairwoman of the board for the region that includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Her new position has given her a voice at the national level.
“It’s been an incredible learning experience for me to meet these leaders. It’s a lot of very smart people looking to make health care better, keep our patients safe and provide quality care,” Rich said in an interview Thursday.
Her term on the American Hospital Association board runs through Dec. 31, 2018.
Rich rose through the ranks at TMC from staff nurse to executive positions. She first joined the hospital in 2003 as chief operations and chief nursing officer but left in 2005. She returned to Tucson in 2007 as hospital administrator and executive vice president and was officially named CEO in 2009.
Tucson’s only independent community hospital, TMC is one of Southern Arizona’s largest nonprofits, with more than 3,000 employees.
“Judy brings a wealth of clinical-health-care knowledge to the AHA Board of Trustees,” said Jim Skogsbergh, AHA board chairman, in a news release Thursday. “As the field continues to evolve, Judy’s depth of experience will help guide the AHA and our hospital and health system members into the future.”
Her experience as a nurse and lifetime in health care are assets she is ready to bring, Rich said, along with her regional viewpoint.
“I bring a perspective from a state that is really far away from Washington, D.C., and at times we’re somewhat distanced from all the policy making that goes on,” she said. “I bring that kind of Western perspective.”
The future includes several challenges for health-care providers, Rich said. At the national level, the fate of Medicare and its continued funding is at the top of the list, as well as how to improve and measure quality of care and how to report patient outcomes fairly and objectively.
Locally, she said, TMC’s biggest challenge is how to continue to serve the region as an independent community hospital.
“We have a board of directors that is very focused on the benefit to our community as the number one goal. Every decision we make is framed in that goal and we are constantly striving to provide good access to care and the best quality care,” Rich said.
She is proud of TMC receiving a four-star rating from the agency that manages and regulates Medicare and being the only hospital in Tucson to receive that recognition. The rating was given this week by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“It’s a wonderful affirmation that the work we’ve been doing has improved the care for our patients,” she said.
