PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Healthcare Hospital Commission Chair Jill Buhler Rienstra is stepping down from the board following more than 30 years of service, concluding her tenure at the end of December.
Buhler Rienstra, who was first appointed to the Jefferson County Public Hospital District No. 2 board in February 1995, and later elected that same year, received the Washington State Hospital Association’s Ben Lindekugel Governance Excellence Award for outstanding governance and community service earlier this year.
A letter signed by State Sen. Mike Chapman and State Reps. Steve Tharinger and Adam Bernbaum noted her central role in the hospital’s expansion and in securing the Critical Access Hospital designation, a move that helped safeguard the hospital’s financial stability and preserve access to care for East Jefferson County residents.
In addition to her role as chair of the board, Buhler Rienstra has held roles in a number of community, civic and human rights organizations, including the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce, Port Townsend Kiwanis, Human Rights Coalition and Northwest Maritime.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell also recognized Buhler Rienstra’s service in a letter dated Dec. 17.
“Your nearly three decades with the Jefferson Healthcare Hospital Commission stands as a testament to your dedication to the countless people who’ve received care at the hospital,” Cantwell wrote.
In her honor, Jefferson Healthcare has established the Jill Buhler Rienstra Courtyard.
Buhler Rienstra expressed pride in the hospital’s growth over her tenure, pointing to expanded facilities, major system upgrades and the addition of new medical services, including dental care.
She cited the adoption of the Epic Systems, forelectronic medical records, construction of new clinical buildings and the expansion of specialty and preventive services as milestones that strengthened patient safety, care coordination and quality, while maintaining high standards of care in a rural healthcare setting.
As Buhler Rienstra prepares to transition to the next chapter of her life, her colleagues remember her dedication and her patient-first thinking.
“Above all else, Jill was an ambassador for Jefferson Healthcare, and her engagement and connection with the community helped us identify the services our patients needed most,” said Mike Glenn, Jefferson Healthcare CEO. “She has always been a steady hand at the wheel.”
“She’s one of the most compassionate, dedicated and ethical people I’ve ever had the opportunity to know and work with in my life,” said Marie Dressler, hospital commissioner since 2010.
Buhler Rienstra was appointed to the board in 1995 following a former commissioner’s resignation. She was approached by then–hospital board chair Joe Wheeler about joining the board, she said.
At the time, she was the president of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce.
Buhler Rienstra has a degree in journalism and spent 20 years working in longform journalism, mostly writing for equine magazines.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about medicine. I’m a magazine writer, editor and photographer,’” Buhler Rienstra said.
Former Jefferson Healthcare CEO Vic Dirksen encouraged her to join despite her lack of medical background.
“(Vic Dirksen said), ‘Great! That’s just what we need — somebody with a new perspective,” Buhler Rienstra recalled.
Buhler Rienstra said the work had a steep learning curve, but that resources for learning are available.
“You don’t have to know how to practice medicine because that’s not your role,” she said. “Your role is to create an umbrella, if you will, to help shield the people who really do know what they’re doing, so that they can do it to the best of their ability.”
One early challenge she recalls came when local physicians, who at the time all operated private practices, approached the hospital to say that changes to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement would force them to leave the community.
“Three of our longstanding primary care doctors came to us and said, ‘We can’t operate anymore in this area, unless you help us,’” Buhler Rienstra said.
Rather than losing physicians, the hospital began employing doctors directly — a major shift that helped stabilize local healthcare access.
Dressler said a large part of the job of a hospital commissioner is responding to whatever comes down the pike from state and federal lawmakers and doing the best job possible in serving patients, regardless. Commissioners serve as intermediaries between staff and decision makers at state and federal levels. A large part of the work is as an advocate, Buhler Rienstra said.
When Dressler started on the board in 2010, she said she was immediately welcomed by Buhler Rienstra.
“She welcomed me and she said, ‘I will support you and do my best to help you become a good hospital commissioner,’” Dressler said.
Three weeks into Dressler’s tenure, then–CEO Vic Dirksen announced he would be stepping down.
The news was ground-shattering for Dressler, who had worked as a registered nurse for 26 years and had worked under Dirksen.
Buhler Rienstra led the process of finding Dirksen’s replacement, Dressler said.
“She carefully and diligently went about guiding the board and hospital district to look for a new CEO,” Dressler said.
Eventually, the board hired Glenn.
During the hiring process, the San Francisco head-hunting firm Jefferson Healthcare employed brought a number of candidates to meet with the board. The firm provided commissioners with charts for notetaking, Buhler Rienstra remembered.
“Mike came in, he was the last one. After his interview, we all just said, ‘Forget the charts — he’s the one,’” Buhler Rienstra said.
“My working relationship with Chair Buhler Rienstra was very special and one of the greatest pleasures of my career,” Glenn said.
As Buhler Rienstra looks ahead, she is looking again towards journalism.
“I’m anxious to get started again,” she said, noting she still has contacts in Washington-based equine magazines.
Alternatively, she said she may support her husband, Douwe Rienstra, a retired physician, in producing educational videos on medical topics.
Newly incoming hospital commissioner Patti Roden will fill Buhler Rienstra’s vacated seat starting Jan. 1. As the president and treasurer of the Jefferson Healthcare Foundation, Rhoden played a pivotal role in raising $2 million for the hospital’s new linear accelerator, Buhler Rienstra said.
“She’s crackerjack. She’s great,” Buhler Rienstra said. “She had extensive experience with small hospitals and larger ones.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com
