Expansion and best place to work among UVA Health’s goals in first-ever 10-year plan

In its first 10-year strategic plan, UVA Health has set goals to significantly expand access to care and to make the health system the best place to work.

The health system’s top goal is to become the top public academic health system in the United States.

Parts of the plan have already been launched to meet goals, such as the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which will position UVA at the forefront of cutting-edge medicine to revolutionize how diseases are treated and cured.

“Fundamental to our future success, UVA Health must be a destination for talent at every level by becoming the best place to work, to learn and to build a lifelong career,” Dr. K. Craig Kent, UVA Health’s chief executive officer and UVA’s executive vice president for health affairs, wrote in the plan’s introduction. “Moreover, we will focus on access and service so that all of those in need can receive their care at UVA Health. We will continue to prioritize superior quality of care, which is fundamental to who we are as a healthcare organization.”

Developed over more than a year, the plan is based on input from more than 3,000 professionals inside and outside the health system, according to Jason Lineen, MBA, UVA Health’s chief strategy officer.

“Our ambitious plan for the future is based on an inclusive, highly collaborative process that included both in-person listening sessions and through community input solicited on our website,” Lineen said. “Building on UVA’s ‘Great & Good’ strategic plan developed in 2019, we are prioritizing key initiatives based on the feedback we received from the community, including enhanced access to primary care.”

Other goals of the plan include building stronger relationships with communities it serves to collaboratively address the most pressing health needs. For example, a retail pharmacy in Nelson County is planned, as well as new community-based neighborhood clinics and outreach sites. Clinics and outreach sites will build on programs such as WellAWARE, which works to improve access to care for residents of the Rose Hill, 10th and Page neighborhoods in Charlottesville.

UVA plans to open multiple primary care sites throughout Charlottesville, Culpeper and northern Virginia. UVA Health has hired more than 50 physicians in the past year for community medical centers and clinic in Culpeper and northern Virginia.

UVA will also work on making patient care more digitally accessible by scheduling appointments online.

High-quality care close to home is another goal of the health system’s 10-year plan with expansion of care now available in central Virginia.

Kent and other health system leaders expect significant changes in healthcare in the next 10 years.

“As an academic health system whose mission is to transform health and inspire hope for all Virginians and beyond, our vision is to be the foremost public academic health system leading this change in the industry,” Kent said.