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Tag: Valley Health

Health Care 2023: MARK NANTZ

Joining Valley Health in June 2020, Nantz is responsible for overseeing about 6,000 employees and six hospitals, including two in West Virginia. He previously held executive roles at Bon Secours Mercy Health, including as chief administrative officer and president of its Atlantic Group.

In January, Valley Health joined West Virginia University Health System, Mountain Health Network and Marshall Health as a co-owner of provider-led Peak Health, which is expected to begin insuring up to 8,000 Valley Health employees and dependents starting in 2024.

In late 2022 and early 2023, Valley Health shed about 100 jobs and closed four fitness centers as cost-cutting measures, with Nantz citing rising pay rates, a decline in demand for services and insurance reimbursement rates not keeping pace with inflation.

Last year, amid ongoing industry talent shortages, Nantz announced that the Shenandoah Valley-based health system would invest $17.2 million toward compensation — in addition to previous investments of more than $50 million since 2020 — allowing a 3% pay raise for eligible full-time and part-time employees.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in accounting, Nantz has a master’s in health administration from Pfeiffer University.

Nurse training partnership to help with instructor shortages

Shenandoah University, Valley Health and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association have teamed up to tackle the Shenandoah Valley region’s nursing shortage by creating a program that can be replicated statewide.

Called NextGen Nurses, the program will use semi-retired and retiring nurses as preceptors — experienced licensed clinicians who serve as teachers and coaches — to supervise SU’s Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing students during their clinical rotations.

“There is an extreme nursing shortage in the Shenandoah Valley and across the country, and all schools of nursing are affected by their inability to achieve the required clinical hours due to the shortage of preceptors,” says Lisa Levinson, the school’s acting dean.

About 100,000 registered nurses left the nationwide workforce over the past two years due to stress, burnout and retirements, according to a National Council of State Boards of Nursing study. Nonprofit health system Valley Health needs 100 to 150 nurses annually to fill vacancies at its hospitals, practices and urgent care systems in the northern Shenandoah Valley and parts of West Virginia, says the health system’s chief nursing executive, Theresa Trivette.

“What we heard from our frontline teams is, ‘We want more nurses, but we’re really struggling with the time commitment it takes to train them,’” Trivette says, so she and Levinson sought a solution. They discovered that semi-retired and retiring nurses are used as preceptors in several states. So, with VHHA’s help, they received a matching $496,000 grant to create NextGen Nurses from the state’s GO Virginia economic development initiative.

SU also collaborated with Valley Health to develop free online training modules for nurses who want to become preceptors. It also added equipment to its simulation lab, where students can complete a quarter of their 500 required clinical hours. This helps reduce the need for preceptors and clinical training sites.

Valley Health’s goal is to hire 35 nurses who’ve completed the modules as part-time preceptors at $40 an hour. It’s already hired two. Each preceptor will support two students at a time but will work with multiple two-student groups throughout the year.

“We assign them students that they are then married to, if you will, for the entirety of their clinical rotation with us,” Trivette says, “so they get the value of their experience as well as the mentorship of the same person and not whoever might be working that day.” 

Valley Health tells workers to get vaccinated

Nicole Clark wants the nurses she supervises to do everything they can to keep themselves, their patients and co-workers safe from COVID-19.

That means wearing personal protective equipment, social distancing, frequent hand washing — and getting vaccinated against the disease.

Valley Health, a nonprofit health system that includes Winchester Medical Center and five other hospitals, as well as urgent care facilities and physician practices, announced in July that all employees, medical providers and contractors will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

“This was just one more thing we could add to our toolkit to protect our patients and our staff,” says Clark, a nursing director at Winchester Medical Center.

Valley Health has about 6,300 employees, and about 72% have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz.

In Virginia, Inova Health System, Mary Washington Healthcare and VCU Health System also require staff to receive COVID-19 immunizations. UVA Health requires all new employees to be vaccinated before beginning work. Current employees must either be vaccinated, have had COVID-19 in the last 150 days, or be working remotely to avoid weekly COVID-19 tests.

More than 55 medical groups, including the American Medical Association, issued a statement in July supporting mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for health care workers.

“I think you’ll see more and more [health systems] require it as the days go by,” says Nantz.

That’s not to say everyone was happy with Valley Health’s new policy.

On July 26, the Front Royal Town Council heard from more than 50 residents over a proposed ordinance to prohibit town employers from terminating workers who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The council rejected the measure by 3-2.

Brittany Watson, a registered nurse at Winchester Medical Center, and her girlfriend, Katherine Hart, a nurse practitioner at nearby Valley Health Urgent Care in Martinsburg, West Virginia, planned to lead protests over the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy in early August.

Watson and Hart both fell ill with COVID-19 in 2020. Neither woman plans to get a vaccine. “I believe in natural immunity,” Watson says.

Nantz expects some employees will leave Valley Health over the requirement. Watson and Hart are considering opening an independent practice together.

It’s a price Valley Health System is willing to pay. “I need a vaccinated workforce that’s well-protected,” Nantz says.

Va. community clinics receive $79M in federal funding

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced Friday that 26 community clinics in Virginia will receive $79 million in funding through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan federal stimulus package. Warner also introduced legislation this week to support other community clinics — most run by health systems in the state’s rural areas — by closing a Medicare payment loophole.

Warner and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, are co-sponsoring Senate legislation that would fix a “sudden and unexpected Medicare payment rate change” included by mistake in the December 2020 COVID-19 relief bill, which excluded any clinics established after December 2019 in a freeze on Medicare payment rates. Nearly 30 clinics in Virginia are impacted, including 18 owned by Carilion Clinic.

“The language in question would have significantly reduced payments to rural health clinics across the country, potentially causing many to face financial uncertainty,” said Carilion Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Don Halliwill in a statement. “This technical fix will allow us to better sustain, and even increase, access to health care in the rural communities we serve. For us and hundreds of other rural health providers, this change will make it easier for us to continue to invest in communities where access to care has been identified as a need.”

Sentara Healthcare and Valley Health also own impacted clinics and have given their support to the measure. The legislation, known as the Strengthening Rural Health Clinics Act of 2021, would amend existing law to grandfather clinics at their current Medicare payment rates if the clinics were in existence or in “mid-build” by Dec. 31, 2020, or if an organization had submitted an application or binding agreement for establishing a rural clinic by the end of 2020. 

Sen. Mark Warner. AP Photo/Steve Helber

“In the past year, rural health clinics have played an essential role in bringing urgent and lifesaving care to some of our most vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, this crisis has served to further throw these facilities into financial distress,” Warner said in a statement. “By fixing a legislative error, our bill will help avoid further financial volatility and allow rural health clinics in Virginia and across the country to continue serving the communities that need it the most.”

Under the American Rescue Plan, the following nonprofit community clinics and health services organizations will receive $79 million in federal funding for expanding COVID-19 vaccination and testing, as well as providing preventive and primary care for people at higher risk of becoming seriously ill. Health centers also can use the funds to expand operational capacity, such as improving infrastructure or adding mobile units.

  • Central Virginia Health Services Inc. (Buckingham County), $8.8 million
  • Neighborhood Health (Alexandria), $7.8 million
  • Eastern Shore Rural Health System Inc., $5.7 million
  • Greater Prince William Area Community Health Center Inc., $4.6 million
  • Peninsula Institute for Community Health Inc., $4.6 million
  • Johnson Health Center (Lynchburg), $4.3 million
  • Loudoun Community Health Center, $3.9 million
  • Piedmont Access to Health Services Inc. (Danville), $3.6 million
  • Healthy Community Health Centers (formerly Harrisonburg Community Health Center), $3.4 million
  • Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems Inc. (Smyth and Washington counties), $3 million
  • St. Charles Health Council Inc. (Lee County), $3 million
  • Portsmouth Community Health Center Inc., $2.7 million
  • Kuumba Community Health & Wellness Center Inc. (Roanoke), $2.4 million
  • Southern Dominion Health Systems Inc. (Lunenburg County), $2.3 million
  • Daily Planet Inc. (Richmond), $2.2 million
  • Tri-Area Community Health (Carroll County), $1.9 million
  • Blue Ridge Medical Center Inc., $1.8 million
  • Rockbridge Area Free Clinic, $1.6 million
  • Bland County Medical Center Inc., $1.5 million
  • Free Clinic of the New River Valley Inc., $1.4 million
  • Martinsville Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness, $1.4 million
  • Horizon Health Services Inc. (Sussex County), $1.1 million
  • Clinch River Health Services Inc., $950,375
  • Stony Creek Community Health Center (Sussex County), $889,500
  • Highland Medical Center (Highland County), $822,750

The city of Richmond also received $2.9 million.

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Virginia sees record daily COVID-19 rises

Just after surpassing more than 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths, Virginia hit its highest daily average of new COVID-19 cases for the third day in a row.

As of Monday, the state’s seven-day average of new cases stands at a record high of 4,480. On Saturday, Jan. 2, the average was 4,168; on Sunday, Jan. 3, the average was 4,313.

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge following the holidays, some of America’s large metropolitan hospitals are feeling the strain, pushing occupancy limits and overwhelming staff. In Virginia, however, the situation doesn’t yet appear as dire.

According to Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association spokesman Julian Walker, intensive-care unit beds are currently at 82% occupancy statewide; for comparison, 2019’s statewide average was 67%. With “surge beds” – beds repurposed for ICU use – factored in, he says, the state is currently operating at 55% ICU bed capacity.

“Capacity isn’t as much a concern,” says Walker, explaining that staffing may prove the greater issue due to health care workers becoming ill or quarantining due to an exposure; VHHA does not track figures on employees out of work because of the pandemic. “I wouldn’t say that we’re at a critical point in Virginia, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t heading in an upward trajectory.”

Virginia recorded 31,361 new COVID-19 cases and 271 deaths last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Jan. 4 update. The current seven-day positivity rate is 15.8%, up 3.5% from a week ago, with an average of 4,480 new cases reported daily.

Walker says 2,765 patients in Virginia are currently receiving in-patient care for COVID-19, roughly 2,400 of which have confirmed positive tests — a leap of more than 1,100 hospitalized COVID patients over the past month.

“Hospitals certainly experienced a bump post-Thanksgiving, and the unfortunate expectation is that in the post-holiday period that there may be another bump, which leads to continued escalation in the number of cases, including the number of people that are hospitalized,” Walker says. “The concern is that if the numbers continue on this trajectory, that could become problematic.”

Dr. Nicolas Restrepo, vice president of medical affairs for Valley Health’s Winchester Medical Center in Winchester, says his health care system has worked to increase capacity.

In the spring, the system maxed out at 40 COVID-19 patients; two days ago, Valley Health reached a new high of caring for 148 individuals for COVID-19. Restrepo says PPE supply chain improvements and gains made in testing have helped increase their capacity.

Still, he says the pandemic is hard on his staff.

“It’s taxing,” says Restrepo. “It is definitely creating a lot of wear and tear on the staff and challenging their resilience. But they’re an incredible group of people, and they continue to move forward, and they continue to support one another, and they continue to provide tremendous care to their patients.”

The state has reported 367,536 cases and 5,132 deaths since March.

Meanwhile, 87,618 people in Virginia have received one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 404,675 doses from Moderna and Pfizer Inc. have been distributed as of Jan. 3, VDH reported. Two doses of each vaccine are required to be fully vaccinated.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance from a panel of doctors and public health experts, which set vaccination priorities that Virginia is following. After frontline care givers and long-term care facility residents and workers receive the vaccine, the next populations in line for COVID-19 vaccinations would be people ages 75 and older and about 30 million “frontline essential workers,” including grocery store workers, teachers and emergency responders. Others — including people age 65 to 74 and those with serious health conditions — will follow these groups, and Virginia public health officials expect the vaccines to be broadly available by summer 2021.

Until then, Walker stresses the need for resiliency.

“Everyone has pandemic fatigue, everyone wants this to be over,” Walker says. “There is hope in the form of the vaccine, but it’s still going to be months before the general public has access to the vaccine and months before a sufficient number of Americans have been vaccinated to reach the point of herd immunity.”

On Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will take part in an online event open to the public, Facts & Faith Friday. He will be joined by Gov. Ralph Northam, State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver, VCU Massey Cancer Center Director Dr. Robert Winn and other state officials in a discussion about the COVID-19 vaccine. To register for the event, click here.

The following health districts reported positivity rates above 10% as of Dec. 31:

  • Alexandria — 10.9%, up from 8.4% on Dec. 24
  • Alleghany (Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke counties and the cities of Covington, Roanoke and Salem) — 13.7%, up from 11.6%
  • Central Shenandoah (Augusta, Bath, Highland, Rockbridge and Rockingham counties and the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro) — 21.1%, up from 17.0%
  • Central Virginia (Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties and Lynchburg) — 24.3%, up from 17.1%
  • Chesapeake — 22.7%, up from 17.8%
  • Chesterfield — 15.6%, up from 13.6%
  • Chickahominy (Charles City, Goochland, Hanover and New Kent counties) — 15.1%, up from 10.0%
  • Crater (Dinwiddie, Greensville, Prince George, Surry and Sussex counties and the cities of Emporia, Hopewell and Petersburg) — 13.8%, up from 11.7%
  • Cumberland Plateau (Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties)  — 22.8%, up from 22.5%
  • Eastern Shore (Accomack and Northampton counties) — 19.5%, up from 11.8%
  • Fairfax — 14.5%, up from 10.5%
  • Hampton — 21.8%, up from 15.4%
  • Henrico — 13.2%, up from 8.9%
  • Lenowisco (Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton) — 32.4%, up from 21.4%
  • Lord Fairfax (Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties and Winchester) — 14.7%, up from 14.4%
  • Loudoun — 16.6%, up from 11.6%
  • Mount Rogers (cities of Bristol and Galax and counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe) — 23.4%, up from 20.6%
  • New River (Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford) — 15.9%, up from 11.7%
  • Norfolk — 14.0%, up from 13.1%
  • Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties) — 16.6%, up from 13.1%
  • Piedmont (Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway and Prince Edward counties) — 18.3%, down from 22.0%
  • Pittsylvania-Danville — 19.1%, up from 12.4%
  • Portsmouth — 19.4%, up from 18.5%
  • Prince William — 20.8%, up from 17.2%
  • Rappahannock (Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties and Fredericksburg) — 17.6%, up from 12.3%
  • Rappahannock Rapidan (Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties) — 11.1%, up from 9.7%
  • Richmond — 11.4%, up from 6.7%
  • Roanoke — 18.2%, up from 16.8%
  • Southside (Brunswick, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties)  — 12.7%, up from 6.9%
  • Three Rivers (Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland counties) — 14.4%, up from 13.4%
  • Virginia Beach — 18.3%, up from 13.8%
  • West Piedmont (Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties and the city of Martinsville) — 19.0%, up from 17.0%
  • Western Tidewater (Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the cities of Franklin and Suffolk) — 13.1%, up from 10.1%

These are the 10 Virginia localities that have seen the most cases in the state, as of Jan. 4:

  • Fairfax County: 46,096
  • Prince William County: 26,664
  • Virginia Beach: 17,819
  • Loudoun County: 14,569
  • Chesterfield County: 13,658
  • Henrico County: 13,126
  • Chesapeake: 9,759
  • Richmond: 9,635
  • Arlington County: 9,290
  • Norfolk: 9,169

Globally, there are 85.2 million reported COVID-19 cases and 1,845,408 confirmed deaths, as of Jan. 4. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 20.6 million confirmed cases so far, with 351,590 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February.

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Valley Health welcomes new president, CEO

Winchester-based Valley Health welcomed new president and CEO Mark Nantz to the regional health care system on June 1. He succeeds previous president and CEO Mark Merrill, who held the position for 11 years.

Nantz most previously was the chief administrative officer and Atlantic group president with Bon Secours Mercy Health. He has also held executive positions at Carolinas Healthcare System (now Atrium Health). As a certified public accountant, he held a leadership role at accounting firm KPMG International Corp.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his master’s degree in health administration from Pfeiffer University.

“These are challenging times,” Nantz said in a statement. “The COVID pandemic has changed much about the way we provide care, how our community views healthcare workers…and even the way we live. You can be confident that Valley Health’s medical and executive leadership have taken steps to ensure the delivery of safe, quality care as we diagnose and treat those with COVID, as well as care for our other patients with emergent healthcare needs.”

Valley Health employs more than 6,000 across its six hospitals and 50 medical practices, serving more than 500,000 people in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as parts of West Virginia and Maryland.

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