Connecting with Bethany Geiger

For Bethany Geiger, the path to Pacific Health Ministry’s (PHM) Board was paved by a career-long refusal to see patients merely as their diagnoses. A physical therapist by training and a healthcare systems leader by evolution, she has spent more than two decades asking what whole-person care requires and building the structures to deliver it.

Raised on a horse farm in rural Ohio, she spent years moving across states, gaining clinical experience before eventually landing at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Portland as a pediatric physical therapist. It was there that her sense of purpose sharpened. Working with children who needed complex mobility equipment, she and her colleagues found themselves in a cycle of insurance denials. “We spent so much time appealing denials,” she recalled. “It was frustrating because these kids truly needed the equipment to participate in life.”

In response, Bethany helped form a rules advisory committee that brought together therapists and equipment vendors to meet with the Oregon Medicaid department. The group uncovered a misalignment between state regulations and federal guidelines. The resulting policy update significantly reduced denials of pediatric mobility equipment. “That was the moment I realized the impact you can have beyond one-on-one care,” she said. “It wasn’t just helping the kids I saw. It was helping the ones I would never meet.”

That experience set a new course. She went on to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree in Healthcare Management at Oregon Health & Science University. She moved to Hawaiʻi in 2018, joining The Queen’s Medical Center as Coordinator of Professional Practice Integrity: Rehabilitation Services Administration, a role that let her remain a practicing physical therapist while stepping into administrative leadership. From there, Bethany went on to become the Manager of Operations at the Queen’s Clinically Integrated Physician Network, where she worked in population health, breaking down silos to ensure patients received the right care at the right place and time.

That systems-level perspective eventually led her to Ohana Pacific Health (OPH), where she serves as Vice President of Strategy & Integration. At OPH, Bethany has shaped and scaled Kālele Care Services, a care management program that provides kupuna and their caregivers with support, advocacy, and respect through their care journey. “We address social needs of clients and their caregivers alongside clinical care from the start,” she explained. “It’s about meeting people where they are.”

That phrase, meeting people where they are, is less a tagline than a reflection of a core truth. The link felt natural when she was approached at a healthcare association gala about joining PHM’s board, and a fellow board member encouraged her to consider the role.

But what she didn’t know then was that her relationship with PHM had already begun years before. During her time at Queen’s, she attended “Tea for the Soul” sessions led by chaplains affiliated with PHM, including Reverend Al Miles. “I didn’t even realize it was PHM at the time,” she said. “I just knew how meaningful those moments were for staff.”

When asked why others should support PHM, Geiger doesn’t hesitate. The answer, she says, comes directly from what she has witnessed across years of clinical and systems work: spiritual care is not optional. It is a vital component of whole-person care, as fundamental as addressing a patient’s housing, food, or transportation needs alongside their medical diagnosis. “We can’t ignore people’s needs and just focus on their diabetes, for example,” she said. “We have to look at the whole person. And spiritual care is a cornerstone.”

Bethany’s support for PHM goes beyond spiritual care. It extends to the network it creates for chaplains. During a board gathering, she was struck by a chaplain’s reflection on what PHM means to those it supports and the sense of not having to do the work alone. It resonated deeply. “How cool is that?” she said, “That there’s a network of chaplains that can provide support to each other, versus feeling alone in a system without people to turn to.”

That reciprocity is, in many ways, the idea that ties together everything Bethany has built her career around. From the children in Portland whose equipment denials she refused to accept, to the kūpuna in Hawaiʻi whose social needs she helped center in a new model of care, her work has always asked the same question: who is looking out for the whole person? At PHM, she has found an organization that asks the same question and answers it.