MORGANTOWN – Albert Wright, president and CEO of WVU Medicine, was recently named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2024 list of “96 Academic Medical Center CEOs to Know.” (His full entry appears at the end of this article.)
We spoke with Wright about the recognition and his leadership of the state’s largest health care system.
“It was a nice surprise,” he said.
Becker’s says the annual list is based on nominations and editorial research. Other CEOs on the list come from Vanderbilt, Boston Medical, Georgetown, UPMC, St. Jude’s Children’s, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins, to name a few.
Becker says, “CEOs of academic medical centers play a critical role in the current healthcare system. They are committed to providing exceptional patient care, advancing research, and promoting innovative medical solutions and discoveries.”
“The leaders who lead academic medical centers and health systems across the country are responsible for leading the organizations that deliver cutting-edge technologies, groundbreaking research and novel clinical trials.”
Wright didn’t know he had been nominated, he said, and didn’t receive any advance notice. “I’m actually finding out when it comes out, like everyone else. … My name is on there as the CEO of the health system, but when you think about it, it’s actually a recognition for the WVU Medicine Health System.”
WVUM is a relatively unique health system, he said. With more than $6 billion in assets, it is in the top 10% of systems. But while most systems of this size and scope are located in urban areas, the WVU health system is rural.
“We have a very clear mission: to improve health outcomes in West Virginia,” with its historically difficult health outcomes. “We’re not doing this to get on any lists or win any awards.” But it’s nice to get recognition, as external validation of the system’s work, he said.
And of course, he is not doing it alone. The system is spread across the state, he said, so it is important to have strong leaders in all hospitals and care facilities.
He is working on a “flexible and effective corporate structure,” he said, with five corporate departments: information technology, legal services, finance, human resources and compliance.
“We recruit really good CEOs for our hospitals across the state,” he said, “and then we give them the autonomy to make decisions and recruit great staff and physicians to provide as many services to the community as possible.”
The list focuses on academic health systems that train new doctors, nurses and dentists. At WVUM, Wright emphasizes strong physician leadership that is increasingly recruiting physicians from across the state, hiring more than 1,000 in recent years.
And he makes sure to get out there and walk the halls and meet all the people. “I think it’s very important that as leaders of a large organization, we continue to interact with all of our caregivers and stay grounded in what we do.”
By being present, he gets feedback to make improvements in real time, he said. “I pride myself on being accessible to our employees, and I hope they feel the same way.” He sends out an email called “The Wright Stuff,” and responses to his texts come right back to him, and he always responds.
Email: [email protected]
Here is the entry at Becker:
Albert Wright Jr., PharmD. President and CEO of West Virginia University Health System and West Virginia University Hospitals (Morgantown).
As President and CEO, Dr. Wright transformed the West Virginia University Health System, growing it from a five-hospital holding company to a fully integrated network of 24 hospitals and clinics across a four-state region including West Virginia, Western Maryland, Eastern Ohio and Southwestern Pennsylvania.
He also significantly expanded the system’s specialty and subspecialty care in areas such as cancer, heart and vascular disease, neuroscience, and pediatrics. Under his leadership, the system also became the first and only multi-organ transplant center in West Virginia, and in late 2022, the system opened a 150-bed children’s hospital.
Under his leadership, the system is currently West Virginia’s largest network of hospitals, clinics and specialty institutes, with more than 3,000 licensed beds, 4,000 providers and 30,000 employees. An 881-bed teaching hospital in Morgantown is the core of the network. In 2023, the system launched Peak Health, its health insurance plan, as a transition to an integrated care and financial system.
