Stepping into Valley View Hospital may be an unusual experience for those used to the stark, white spaces of a traditional healthcare facility. 

Fireplaces, cozy chairs, wooden beams, nature art and large windows; the decor is just one example of how the nonprofit, independent healthcare system strives to put clients, and the community, first. 

“(Patients) are often at the most vulnerable, stressful times of their life when they’re in the hospital,” Valley View CEO Dr. Brian Murphy said. “I wanted to take my background as a physician, knowing how important outcomes are, and results matter, and who’s taking care of you matters, and try to pour that into the next phase of Valley View.”

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For 25 years, Murphy cared for patients as a board-certified urologist. In 2019, he became Valley View’s CEO after former CEO Gary Brewer retired.  

“It’s easy to leave something when you’re burned out or unhappy. I absolutely loved what I used to do, so it was challenging,” Murphy said, noting that Brewer approached him about the position almost two years before retiring. “But after I thought about it I was like, this is such a great place. It would be an incredible honor to become CEO and see where I might be able to lead Valley View in the future.”

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Murphy has built on the foundation Brewer provided with a focus on expanding Valley View’s services and hiring talented providers.

In the last five years, Valley View has expanded several services and has begun offering open-heart surgery, after hours urgent care and grown its interventional cardiology care team. It has also updated its facilities, adding a new observation unit, critical care unit beds, a surgery center in Basalt and physical therapy clinic in Carbondale. 

“What I did was take the ball and keep it rolling to say, OK, we’ve reached critical mass in our interventional cardiology program, it’s probably time to do an open heart surgery program,” Murphy said.

Two of Valley View’s primary care practices, Roaring Fork Family Practice and Internal Medicine, have added multiple providers, as well as behavioral health team members, since 2019.

“We don’t turn anybody away. Our charity care goes beyond $20 million a year,” Murphy said. “In my opinion, and it’s a humble opinion, but it’s a proud opinion at the same time, we are truly a community hospital.”

The healthcare system has grown from 160 to 219 providers and established a network of care that reaches Aspen, Eagle, Silt and Rifle, with outreach clinics in Rangely, Meeker and Craig. 

“We’re always looking for opportunities to add new things so patients don’t have to travel or don’t have hardships with leaving family to get access somewhere else,” Murphy said. “That will continue to be a real strong focus moving forward.”

Valley View has also received recognition for its quality care multiple times over the past few months. 

In October, Valley View was recognized as one of America’s Best Hospitals by the Women’s Choice Award, which is a by women, for all rating system that identifies the best brands, companies and healthcare facilities. 

The healthcare system received recognition in five categories for 2024: orthopedics, comprehensive care, obstetrics, heart care and minimally invasive surgery.

“The award signifies that Valley View is in the top 1% for best hospitals in orthopedics, the top 2% for best small hospitals in comprehensive care (25–100 beds), the top 4% for obstetrics and heart care, and the top 6% for minimally invasive surgeries.” Valley View’s Oct. 28 news release states.

Earlier that month, Valley View received a Five-Star Rating for Overall Hospital Quality from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Hospitals nationwide are evaluated, and the rating is based on performance across 46 quality measures divided into five categories: mortality, patient experience, safety of care, readmission rates and timely and effective care. 

Valley View also had one of the lowest 30-day mortality rates for heart attack patients in the country between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2023, according to July data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The mortality rates were reported in Becker’s Hospital Review in October.

 It’s an achievement that Murphy is particularly proud of. 

“We’ve been putting in the work for a long time, and we’ve always internally known, and I think the patients in our community that have received high end services and life saving care have felt that too,” Murphy said. “But to get that level of context that we’re doing incredible work, whether it comes back to quality matters, safety matters and now outcomes after heart attacks, it’s incredible.”

Murphy’s future plans for Valley View are simple: to continue providing high-quality care and further expand facilities and services. 

“We’ll never stop striving for those core high-quality, safe patient-centered care,” Murphy said. “Because at the end of the day, they are our customers and we have to keep doing what we feel we do a good job in and always look for ways to get better.”