Published July 2001

Providence finds quality leader in Larson

Providence Health Systems has found a respected health-care leader in Gail Larson to continue the rise of Providence Everett Medical Center to a new role as a five-county regional health-care center, continuing the fine work of recently retired CEO Ray Crerand.

Larson seems well qualified for that challenge, as well as overseeing Providence’s related health-care facilities and services in Snohomish County and the completion and operation of its $40 million Women’s and Children’s Pavilion, opening in Everett early next year.

In fact, her extensive background includes experience in planning, designing and building a $54 million award-winning children’s hospital and a $30 million renovation of a women’s hospital.

Now Senior Vice President and General Manager of MacDonald Women’s Hospital and Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital — both part of University Hospitals of Cleveland in Ohio — Larson also is President of the Association of Ohio Children’s Hospitals, founder and co-chair of the Coalition for Greater Cleveland’s Children, a board member of the March of Dimes and a founding member of Women in Health Care Administration.

She said she sees her new Providence role as an attractive professional challenge.

“Providence Health Systems is an excellent health-care system,” she said in a telephone interview from Cleveland. “Also, Providence Everett Medical Center is a quality facility. And, I was attracted by the new Women’s and Children’s Pavilion.

“Ray did an excellent job in providing an even stronger base for health-care services, including the ability to care for more complex patient needs. We want to let the population know that we now have similar capabilities to those offered in Seattle, so people with difficult medical problems can go to facilities in their area.”

She also has personal reasons for making her move to the Northwest.

A Seattle native, she’s a graduate of the University of Washington, where her husband also attended and one of their sons is enrolled.

Her other son is attending college in Portland, and her father-in-law lives in Arlington.

There’s little doubt a person of her caliber will receive a warm welcome from those she will live and work with in Snohomish County.

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