‘Inside UVA’: Learn How COVID Tested This UVA Health Chief’s Leadership Skills
Audio: ‘Inside UVA’: Learn How COVID Tested This UVA Health Chief’s Leadership Skills(22:24)
When the pandemic prompted Wendy Horton to start her new job a month early, she helped navigate hospital care and vaccinations for her new community.
Wendy Horton was supposed to begin her job as UVA Health University Medical Center’s new chief operating officer in April of 2020.
Then, the coronavirus hit.
“I learned that we had two days of personal protective equipment on hand at the hospital, and that was a little bit frightening,” she told President Jim Ryan on the latest edition of his podcast, “Inside UVA.” “I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I just need to get there and get started early.’”
Horton began work in March of that year and would soon steward the medical center through the unprecedented pandemic, in collaboration with Dr. Craig Kent, CEO of UVA Health, and his leadership team.
“And what was the biggest challenge that you faced early on?” Ryan asked Horton.
“You know, I think early on, it was a lot of fear,” Horton responded. She said the UVA Health team worked full force taking care of people and developing a vaccination plan. “Being a large employer, being really a big piece of the community, and then being that good neighbor was so important in COVID,” she said.
Now the chief executive officer of UVA Health University Medical Center, the University’s Charlottesville-based hospital and its associated clinics, Horton is executing the system’s first 10-year strategic plan.
To learn more about Horton and her plan, tune in to this week’s edition of “Inside UVA,” which is streamed on most podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube Music.
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Article Information
December 5, 2024