In last year’s Annual Report, 
I shared our vision for Good 
Shepherd Health Care 
System to establish new and 
expanded services, allowing 
us to support our region in 
every way possible so that 
we can be the health care 
system our communities 
deserve to have. I believe 
we have made that vision a 

reality with support from our Board of Trustees and a 
steadfast effort from our medical staff and 1,250 team 
members. Together, we have expanded our healthcare 
services to 44 service lines, and we have successfully 
employed 46 new physicians and advanced practice 
clinicians in one year’s time.
A new service line our team worked diligently to 
stand up in just over 30 days was Nephrology (Kidney 
Care), including a full-service clinic and inpatient 
dialysis services, with Board-Certified Nephrologist 
Fadi Akoum, MD, at the helm. In brief time, we 
expanded Urology services from one to five Board-
Certified Urologists (Matthew Ercolani, MD, Theresa 
Koppie, MD, Jeffrey LaRochelle, MD, Stanley Myers, 
MD and Eli Thompson, MD), each trained in da Vinci 
Robotic surgery with extensive experience in urologic 
oncology. We also expanded our Orthopedics team by 
adding two talented Orthopedic Surgeons (Matthew 
Thompson, MD and Zhiqing Xing, MD) and aligning 
Physiatry (Pain Management) with Orthopedics with 
the addition of Board-Certified Physiatrist  
Trey Rigert, MD. 
We have some of the country’s best physicians and 
other providers practicing right here in Hermiston, 

Oregon. The true value of this strong recruitment 
effort is not only to provide best-in-class care, but to 
eliminate the need to travel to get that care. We want 
the communities we serve to be able to receive the 
care they need at Good Shepherd—near their homes 
and families.
On an infrastructure front, we have made several key 
updates to enhance our facilities, and strategically 
moved clinics to make room for new services. One 
significant move was to place our Cancer Center in 
a much-needed larger space in our Good Shepherd 
Medical Plaza. We also made significant changes to 
the future of Good Shepherd Urgent Care, withdrawing 
former plans to build a new facility on Highway 395, to 
instead remodel Urgent Care in its current space in the 
Columbia Professional Plaza. The decision to continue 
having the Urgent Care clinic in close proximity to our 
hospital allows us to coordinate quality patient care 
with our Emergency Department and key support 
services, such as Diagnostic Imaging and Laboratory 
services, to the benefit of our patients. 
Two construction projects our leadership has worked 
diligently to plan for include a new Life Flight Network 
Transport Base and the expansion of our Children’s 
Center. The Life Flight Network Transport Base 
helicopter will be located right here on campus, saving 
critical time when every minute matters. We are in the 
process of expanding our Children’s Center from 5,000 
square feet to a total of 15,000 square feet, allowing 
more of our employees and their children to benefit 
from childcare on our main campus. We look forward 
to breaking ground on these projects in the coming 
fiscal year. In addition to these new building projects, 
we recently purchased the former Motion Orthopedics 
building and have plans to retrofit it to accommodate 

From the President & CEO

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