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It has been one year since UVA Health launched its refreshed Mission, Vision, and Values among our team members and since then a lot has taken place. From the launch of our strategic plan ... to high participation in our engagement survey ... to the declaration of primary care expansion ... to the announcement of the new Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, the first of its kind in Virginia, we have come a long way already toward our goal of truly transforming health and inspiring hope for all Virginians and beyond.

How are we progressing toward our mission? How are our values coming to life? What does the next year hold for UVA Health? We recently sat down to ask these questions (and more) with Neeral Shah, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Hepatology, and Jason Lineen, Chief Strategy Officer, who have both been instrumental in developing, launching and sustaining our efforts around UVA Health’s reinvigorated mission, vision and values.

Over the last year, how have our mission, vision, and values helped shape the way forward for UVA Health?

Lineen: What is most gratifying for me is how much positive engagement from all corners of the organization we had to help rewrite our mission, vision, and values statements, and then also shape our new strategic plan. The reason we prioritized rewriting the mission, vision, and values early on was to have an anchor for our new strategic plan. In fact, throughout the process, I had the privilege of working directly with hundreds of our UVA Health team members to bring our mission, vision and values to life through the launch of our first-ever enterprisewide strategic plan, which you can learn more about by visiting our new and improved website, One Future Together | Health and Hope for All. As you’ll see, this work was the culmination of a highly inclusive 18-month planning process outlining our ambitious goals for the decade ahead. At the center of that plan is our new mission statement, which is to “Transform Health and Inspire Hope for All Virginians and Beyond.” Informed by the input of thousands of extraordinary team members, our strategic plan recognizes the transformative potential of a fully integrated academic health system and provides a blueprint to achieve our vision. 

Shah: I agree with Jason and really feel that our mission, vision, and values were a way for us to define the way we work and to bring us closer together as one team around a common purpose. As I told Dr. Craig Kent shortly after our new mission, vision, and values were announced, it’s not only important for our patients to know what our mission is and who we stand for, but for all of our team members to know as well, so that we are all on the same page moving forward. We have an incredible team, and over the past year, I really appreciate how our new mission, vision, and values are aligning our team members to deliver on our mission. Last year, I had the privilege of leading our efforts to reimagine our mission, vision, and values, and it was enormously exciting to see that effort come to life. We’ve come a long way.

When you look back over the last year, what has stood out about UVA Health?

Shah: I think we’ve taken tremendous steps to hear from our people as we strive to be a best place to work. Even as we were putting together our mission, vision and values, we did our best to be inclusive in the process and to invite a conversation among our team members to help define the way we work. Not only did we survey our team members to keep them engaged, we also collected more than 3,000 pieces of information from various sources, including community members, to directly inform our work. The outcome was a mission, vision, and values that was directly informed by our team members, and I’m proud of that work because I think it shows what we can create when we work together.

Lineen: When I think of something that has stood out, I think of our engagement survey, which saw more than 75% participation in the Press Ganey survey and 87% participation in the AAMC StandPoint Faculty survey. What that showed me is that our extraordinary team members are truly leaning in to help shape and have voice in our future. Our strategic plan has the title “One Future Together | Health and Hope for All” because it will take all of our collective effort to achieve our bold aspirations for the decade ahead. I have no doubt that we will be able to achieve our grandest aspirations through collective action.  

How have our mission, vision, and values influenced the way you work?

Lineen: For me, our new mission, vision, values and guiding principles serve as the anchor for our new strategic plan. In fact, when you look at our strategic plan, you’ll see that we put our mission, vision, and values first — before our guiding principles, our strategic goals, everything. We did that because our mission, vision, and values are the blueprint for all that we’ll look to accomplish over the coming years, whether that’s cultivating healthy communities, strengthening our foundation, or enabling discoveries for better health. The way I see it, our values are not only influencing the work we do today, but defining the work we’ll do over the coming decade.

Shah: I think they have given us direction on how to treat and support each other. We are all here to perform different job functions, whether that’s contributing to groundbreaking research, providing direct patient care, teaching the next generation of health practitioners, or contributing in other ways — like making sure our systems work or communicating our services to our patients. No matter where you work, though, we are all working toward the same goals and the same purpose, and we’re here to help each other on that journey. When I think of our values in action, I think of when I first came to UVA Health and got lost on one of the main floors. Lucky for me, I ran into one of our team members who took ownership of my experience and personally escorted me where I needed to go. That wasn’t in his job description, but it was a behavior that is engrained in our culture. I think our mission, vision, and values really brought that to the forefront and celebrated the fact that we’re a diverse team that supports one another to achieve outstanding outcomes.

How do you describe our culture to someone joining UVA Health?

Shah: What I tell new employees is that we’re in the business of transforming health, whether it be at the bedside as a clinician, in the laboratory with ground-breaking research, or in the classroom or in the community. We’re in the business of inspiring hope — for many we are a big source of hope for their health journey. And we’re in the business of inclusivity — to be here for all Virginians and to not discount any population. Our mission is truly who we are.

Lineen: Our culture is one that puts patients first in all that we do. Each and every day, UVA Health has the privilege to heal, to teach, to discover, and to advance health equity. It takes all of us, from the mail room to the operating room, working together, to achieve this incredible work on a daily basis.  

Where do you think UVA Health’s greatest opportunities are?

Lineen: I think there’s a real opportunity for us to continuously innovate and enhance how we deliver care for our patients. As part of our strategic plan, we’re going to be expanding into new areas and recruiting new talent to join our organization, and we have a real chance of introducing new ideas and new ways of working, and doing so in a way that unifies us, no matter where we work. 

Shah: I think our opportunities are represented in our vision, which is to say that we want to be the nation’s leading academic health system and best place to work. We want to take care of our patients and community, and also each other. When I look at what the future holds for UVA Health, I see so much opportunity for us to influence both of those areas. In particular, I see real opportunity for us to invest in our people and to work together to make our work place the best it can be. The collegiality and camaraderie I have experienced at UVA Health is unsurpassed from previous health systems I have been a part of. If we take care of each other, I believe that will translate to the level of care we deliver for our patients, so let’s work together to make that happen.

In one sentence, what does the next year look like for you at UVA Health?

Shah: Caring for every patient and team member the way I would a family member.

Lineen: Continuing our relentless journey to be the best place for care and the best place to work in healthcare.