Carrie Willetts, the brand new President and CEO of WVU Drugs – Uniontown Hospital, isn’t any stranger to Uniontown and Laurel Highlands.
As a highschool pupil, Willetts spent a summer season working for a kayak outfitting firm in Ohiopyle, and the avid outdoorsman was taken with the pure great thing about the world.
Moreover, Willetts’ mom’s household was from New Kensington, and her household would commonly drive via Uniontown from their hometown of Petersburg, W.Va., en route to go to.
“I’ve recognized Uniontown for a very long time. I believe the Laurel Highlands is so stunning. I like to hike, mountain bike and ski, and my household and I are excited to be on this space,” Willetts stated.
Willetts took the helm on the 145-bed Uniontown Hospital within the fall. She was additionally chosen to function WVU Drugs’s Govt Vice President of Well being System Integration and Enterprise Growth.
Willetts has greater than twenty years of expertise in well being programs in Virginia and Pennsylvania, most lately serving as Senior Vice President and President of the Jap Area for WellSpan Well being for the previous six and a half years.
Willetts stated that as a West Virginia native, “she’s all the time had a coronary heart for all issues WVU.”
She has lengthy had a watch on WVU Drugs and its growth — the well being system operates in all however 14 of West Virginia’s 55 counties and has clinics in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio — and acknowledged that she is worked up concerning the progress of Uniontown. Hospital and its mission to supply “distinctive care, near residence” because it turned a part of the well being system in 2021.
“I’ve adopted the expansion and success of the group for fairly a while. What made me select WVU Drugs was our mission. We work in healthcare as a result of we wish to enhance individuals’s well being. However our mission can also be to alter the trajectory of the well being of the communities we serve,” Willetts defined. “The communities that WVU serves will not be all the time thriving or have traditionally had the perfect entry to healthcare, so we serve the group, relatively than anticipate sufferers to return to Morgantown. We wish to present depth and breadth sufficient provide of high quality providers and specialised care in order that sufferers would not have to journey lengthy distances for medical care.
Since WVU Drugs acquired Uniontown Hospital, it has employed greater than 60 physicians to employees its major care and specialists, and added dozens of providers, all with the aim of enhancing entry and decreasing the necessity for sufferers to journey to Pittsburgh. or its environment. care areas.
Specialty care supplied consists of girls’s care, pediatrics, orthopedics, pulmonary and demanding care, most cancers care, cardiology, normal surgical procedure, and otolaryngology.
The hospital has been acknowledged for its excellence in stroke and diabetes care, lately opened a brand new urology clinic, and goals to renew labor and supply providers someday in 2024.
“Our groups are dedicated, very educated, tremendous pleasant, sort and caring, and supply nice healthcare. They’re our gateway to the group,” Willetts stated.
Willetts assumed the position of President and CEO following the departure of Dr. Davis Hess, who serves as President and CEO of WVU Drugs United Hospital Middle.
Willetts has additionally held management positions on the College of Virginia Well being System in Virginia and at Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Virginia.
He has a grasp’s diploma in well being care administration from Virginia Commonwealth College in Richmond, Virginia.
Willetts believes her position is to assist WVU Drugs leaders and crew members attain their full potential in order that the healthcare system supplies secure, high-quality care to sufferers.
It additionally emphasizes the significance of tradition in recruiting and sustaining a highly-skilled employees, particularly amid persevering with nursing shortages throughout the nation.
“I do not assume any trade or enterprise is proof against staffing challenges. Healthcare staff have many job choices. Our aim is to distinguish ourselves via tradition. Our aim is to be the perfect place for individuals to work” Willetts stated. . “It’s our duty to create and preserve aggressive wages and advantages, and to supply a piece setting the place individuals are pleasant and really feel nicely supported and cared for.”
And three years after the primary case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the US, “COVID is a part of our common working processes,” Willetts stated.
He praised the hospital and its management, which has obtained state recognition for caring for sufferers and main immunization efforts.
“This hospital was disproportionately impacted by COVID and had one of many highest hospitalization charges within the state. I commend the management crew for taking the lead in caring for our actually sick sufferers whereas selling the general public well being aspect.” Willetts stated. .
For Willetts, what makes WVU Drugs useful is its 23 member system hospitals anchored by its flagship educational medical middle, Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., and its 5 educational institutes.
“One in every of WVU Drugs’s strengths is its massive community of group hospitals related to its main scientific and academic institutes, such because the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Coronary heart and Vascular Institute, WVU Most cancers Institute, and WVU Drugs Childrens, all centered on innovation and transformation of consideration. Willetts stated.