Gunnison Valley Hospital recognized for initiative in helping medical students
Robert Stevens
Managing editor
12-15-2016
ST. GEORGE — Gunnison Valley Hospital (GVH) received the Commitment to Clinical Training Award during the Rural Health Association of Utah Conference on Dec. 1 in St. George.
“The hard work completed in hospitals in small towns often goes unrecognized,” Karen Ganns, assistant director at the Utah Center for Rural Health, said. “Yet at the recent Rural Health Association of Utah Conference, Mark Dalley and the Gunnison Valley Hospital received a small portion of the recognition they deserve for assisting in training future medical professionals to serve the state of Utah.”
Greg Rosenvall, rural hospital improvement director with the Utah Hospital Association presented Mark Dalley, hospital administrator of GVH, with the award.
Ganns said this award is given to a hospital or individual in the state of Utah that has shown tremendous dedication to assisting future healthcare providers in the hands-on training required of medical graduate students.
During the conference, Rosenvall mentioned that Dalley goes above and beyond what is required of his role to provide needed rural clinical training for medical students. Specifically, when Dalley was approached to increase the number of graduate health students in the Gunnison area, he took the initiative to contact the physician preceptors directly and provided free housing owned by the hospital for students to occupy while completing medical rotations. This practice has allowed multiple medical students to receive training in a rural setting, which Ganns says often incentivizes these students to return to rural communities to practice in the future.
Carrie Torgersen, program coordinator with the Utah Center for Rural Health, works directly with Dalley to place students in medical rotations.
“Other hospital executives will hear what the Gunnison Valley Hospital is doing and be inspired to do the same thing in their communities,” said Torgersen, who places students in clinical rotations across the state.
GVH is a Critical Access Hospital, which is a designation given to certain rural hospitals by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with particularity high need.
Dalley, with over 35 years in the healthcare industry, has been the administrator of the Gunnison Valley Hospital for the past five years. In his career, Dalley has also worked for two large systems, Intermountain Healthcare and Catholic Health Initiatives, and for the Rural Health Management Corporation, a rural hospital management company.
Dalley is currently on the board of the Utah Hospital Association and chairman of the board on the Utah Rural Independent Hospital Network.
Dalley and his wife Mary Jayne are the parents of six children and proud grandparents of 13 (soon to be 14) grandchildren.
Ganns said the Commitment to Clinical Training Award itself is a work of fused glass art created by local glass artist Carrie Trenholm. Information on Trenholm’s art can be found online at www.trenholmglass.com.
