Connect

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted to extend Dr. K. Craig Kent’s contract as Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Chief Executive Officer for UVA Health through Jan. 31, 2030. Below, Dr. Kent talks to Connect and explains why “the future for UVA Health is extremely bright.” 

Congratulations on your contract extension! What priorities do you have for UVA Health over the next few years? 

Kent: Thank you! I am excited to lead the organization as we continue to implement our 10-year strategic plan to make UVA Health one of the nation’s leading public academic health systems. We have achieved so much, and I hope every team member feels a sense of pride and momentum. The 17,000 team members who are part of UVA Health are the reason we have been so successful. 

As for priorities, we want UVA Health to be the best place to work in every community we serve and for all of our team members. Burnout and staffing shortages are the most important concerns in healthcare, and alleviating these is an ongoing priority for me and our entire leadership team. We have made strides in stabilizing our staffing, and I am proud to report that the University Medical Center’s overall turnover rate of 13.9% is below the national average of 17.5%. Our nursing turnover rate of 12.6% is well below the national average of 20.6%.

In addition to fostering a best place to work, we’re also committed to operating as one health system. Over the next several months and years, we will continue to work to become more integrated and aligned among our four main medical centers and ambulatory operations. Already, we have invested in modernizing our operations and infrastructure, including integrating more than 200 different IT systems that concluded with a successful Epic go-live this summer. As we have grown from just a Charlottesville organization to one that serves the Commonwealth of Virginia, we are focusing on providing consistent UVA Health-quality care to anyone and everyone across the state. As a truly integrated health system, we can use clinical integration and the power of collaboration to better care for our patients and deliver superior outcomes. 

As we expand in ways that bring high-quality care to more people, we will also continue to explore additional strategic partnerships. UVA Health has significantly expanded over the past three years, including acquiring three hospitals and a physician organization in Northern Virginia, part-ownership in Riverside Health, a large health system in Eastern Virginia, and key partnerships in other areas of the Commonwealth. It’s our responsibility to ensure all Virginians have access to the high-quality and complex (tertiary and quaternary) healthcare that UVA Health provides.

In striving to make UVA Health the best place to work, what initiatives will create an environment where everyone feels valued? 

Kent: Every single team member is essential to achieve our mission to transform health and inspire hope for all Virginians and beyond. Creating a strong workforce is the absolutely necessary for our internal camaraderie and support, but importantly for the patients we serve. 

One example of an initiative that I believe will help cultivate a best place to work is our annual Spark Innovation Competition, which brings great ideas to life and transforms our culture by having team members propose workplace culture improvements. Given our team members’ collective knowledge and experience, it should come as no surprise that there have been some incredible ideas generated and implemented as a result of this competition. This past year the Spark Innovation Competition was focused on the clinical environment, and this year’s competition is focused on research innovation.

In addition, we conducted an Employee Engagement Survey in 2022 and team members said they would appreciate more leadership development opportunities. Our newly created and just initiated UVA Health Leadership Institute fosters mentorship, advances career development, and grows leaders from within. The interest level in this new initiative was significant, and our inaugural cohort of over 20 individuals from across the health system just kicked off in November. I’m excited to watch their progress unfold. 

We also need to grow our workforce, and our Earn While You Learn program helps us do that. Individuals with a high school diploma or GED are eligible for the program, which provides on-the-job training plus benefits while training. We have made it easier than ever to join the UVA Health team. Over 250 new employees have joined UVA Health through this program.  

What innovative approaches are you focusing on to ensure that UVA Health remains at the forefront of delivering high-quality patient care? 

Kent: We just broke ground on the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which will be a state-of-the-art facility home for researchers to explore and fast track new treatments to improve health on the cellular and genetic levels. Almost one year ago I stood in the Rotunda and spoke about the speed of advancement of biomedical research. In 1950, the doubling time of medical knowledge was 50 years. Now, in 2023, it is less than 73 days. That means that since we first announced the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology in January 2023, medical knowledge has increased five-fold.

We’re providing our exceptional faculty and researchers with the facilities and resources they need to accelerate the development of new treatments for the most devastating diseases. They’ll do this with research partners across the state, and these emerging therapies will benefit not just our patients but people all around the world.

This institute will be a game-changer in Virginia. This is an extraordinary moment in history, and I’m thrilled we at UVA Health will be part of the global movement toward developing revolutionary new therapies.   

Outside of work, what are some activities you enjoy or places you like to visit in Charlottesville in your free time? 

Kent: Charlottesville has so much to offer, and my wife, Marjie, and I love being part of this wonderful community. We’re big basketball fans. We have made so many friends and we frequent the many great restaurants around town. I love to be outdoors and on my bike whenever I can.