MVRH Board Chair Receives Statewide Award

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A Logandale resident has received a prestigious award for her work on the Mesa View Regional Hospital (MVRH) board of directors. MVRH board chairwoman Teresa Bowen was honored last week as the recipient of the 2022 Commitment to Community Award for Trustee Excellence, awarded by the Nevada Hospital Association.

Bowen received the award at the Association’s annual awards luncheon held on Thursday, Sept. 1 at the Hyatt Regency Resort at Lake Tahoe.

“It was really a great honor, not only for her but for the hospital and the community,” said Mesa View Regional Hospital CEO Kelly Adams in an interview with The Progress. “It just validates the things that we are doing in the community and all the things that we have been changing and talking about at the hospital.”

Bowen has served on the MVRH board since 2016. And she has been no stranger to community involvement in the field of health care.

She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from DePaux University in Greencastle, Indiana, and has been in the nursing field for more than 30 years.

She moved to Logandale in 1998 where she worked for different home health care organizations. She also served as a school nurse at both the high school and elementary school levels.

After observing a need in the Moapa Valley, she opened what is now Mesa View Homecare and Hospice. That small and inauspicious startup has become a large local home healthcare service provider with a staff of about 60 people serving patients in both Moapa and Virgin Valleys.

Bowen led the MVRH and its board through the COVID-19 pandemic with a successful regional vaccination program. That program had a rate of over 65 percent.

“Teresa directly participated in that program and she took it upon herself to go out into the community and administer vaccine shots to the homebound,” Adams said. “She did that all on her own. That is just the kind of person that she is.”

In an interview with The Progress, Bowen said that she was surprised to be selected for the award.
“But it was a great surprise to have,” she said. “It was nice to be recognized. I am more used to working in the background and getting things done that way. I am definitely more comfortable in that space.”

Bowen travelled up to Lake Tahoe on Wednesday in order to attend the luncheon the following day. She said that the resort was a beautiful venue and the luncheon was nicely done.

A video presentation about Bowen’s accomplishments, which had been produced earlier, was screened at the event. Bowen was also presented with an engraved crystal/glass award for her service.
“They did a really great job!” Bowen said.

Bowen’s ongoing goals over her 23 years of service in the community seem to finally be coming to fruition in the past couple of years, she said.
“For me it is all about bringing all the different community resources together to offer continuity of care for area residents,” Bowen said. “And all of it needs to intersect at the hospital.”

Bowen observed that a long-held goal of MVRH has been to curb outmigration of care and bring residents back to the local hospital. But this requires a significant change, she said.
“It is not just about filling the bill of being the community’s only choice,” Bowen said. “It is about being the BEST choice.”
“We want to gain the community’s trust so that they choose to stay here to receive care,” Bowen added. “I think we are getting somewhere with that. We have gained a lot of ground on that in just the past year and a half.”