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Thanks to last year’s acquisition of three community hospitals — Culpeper Medical Center, Haymarket Medical Center and Prince William Medical Center — UVA Health is poised to grow in unprecedented ways. Much excitement surrounds the possibilities associated with this acquisition, and work is underway to integrate the three hospitals into the organizational fabric of UVA Health. To learn more about what is happening now, Connect recently interviewed UVA Health Chief Administrative Officer Mary Frances Southerland and Interim CEO of UVA Community Health Erik Shannon, who are leading the transition work. Below is a synopsis of what we learned.

You can find more details about completed and upcoming activities in the Transition Updates.

Q. What are the key benefits of this acquisition?

There are many benefits from this acquisition, including:

• Greater Patient Access: Having facilities in the Culpeper region and Northern Virginia will enable us to extend the benefits offered by a leading academic medical center to more patients.
• Clinician Benefits: With the expansion of the UVA Health community, our clinical team members will have access to more shared services, leading-edge technology, and robust communities of practice across the healthcare spectrum. 
• Organizational Improvements: During the integration process, we plan to revisit some of our standing practices and procedures and look for ways to improve how we serve our communities and all UVA Health team members.  Integration also will give us a chance to revisit and strengthen our organizational culture, which we know is a critical factor to our success moving forward.
• Increased Revenues: Benefits to UVA Health include greater revenue generation and stronger branding/marketing presence in Northern VA.

Q. What is the status of the integration process now? 

Right now, our UVA Community Health facilities are being disconnected from the systems and processes that are tied to Novant Health. This effort includes migrating to new systems for things like employee benefits, payroll, email, and electronic medical records. Other highlights include:

• Organizational Name Change: As of Oct. 1, 2021, UVA Community Health completed the Doing Business As (DBA) name change.  
• Enhanced Benefits: All UVA Community Health team members now have standardized comprehensive benefits.
• New Payroll System: UVA Community Health successfully transitioned from the Novant payroll system and onto an interim payroll platform, Meditech, on Dec. 19, 2021.

Q. Who do these changes impact? 

Thus far, transition activities have impacted primarily UVA Community Health team members. As we begin to integrate and optimize as one health system, some changes may impact team members across all UVA Health. For this reason, we recommend that you stay tuned in to transition-related updates. It’s an exciting time for our organization, and great progress has been made since July 1, 2021, thanks to the hard work of the transition team.  More to come in 2022 and beyond!

Q. Where can I find more information about the transition? 

Transition progress will be reported at recurring town halls and in leadership updates. In the meantime, you can always find the most up-to-date details on Transition Updates. You can also reach out to UVACommunityHealthIntegration@hscmail.mcc.virginia.edu with any questions you may have.