UVA Medical Center CEO to Leave for New Job in November

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – University of Virginia President Jim Ryan says UVA Medical Center’s Chief Executive Officer is leaving for a new job.

Pamela Sutton-Wallace has served as CEO since 2014 and most recently as Acting Executive Vice President for Health Affairs. Sutton-Wallace will be leaving in November to join New York-Presbyterian Hospital as Senior Vice President and Regional Chief Operating Officer.

In a letter to UVA faculty and staff, Ryan says Sutton-Wallace’s departure is not related to Monday’s Washington Post article about UVA Medical Center’s practice of suing patients with unpaid medical bills. On Tuesday, Ryan made a statement about the article.

Dr. Chris Ghaemmaghami will serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer for UVA Medical Center. Ryan says UVA is “moving expeditiously” in the recruitment of a new Executive Vice President.

09/10/2019 Letter from President Jim Ryan to UVA Faculty and Staff:

Dear Colleagues,

It has been a difficult couple of days for UVA Health as we’ve responded to yesterday’s Washington Post story about billing and collection practices at the Medical Center.  As I shared in my social media post last night, part of striving to be both a great and a good university is honestly facing problems you encounter and doing what you can to address them.  That is what we are trying to do here and will continue to do when we discover other ways we can improve as an institution.  I am grateful to those of you who are working to revise our billing and collection practices, and to all of you for the work you do each day to provide world-class patient care, teaching, and research.

Today, I write to share with you a change in UVA Health leadership.  Pamela Sutton-Wallace, who has served as the Chief Executive Officer of UVA Medical Center since 2014 and most recently as Acting Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, will be leaving in November to join New York-Presbyterian Hospital as Senior Vice President and Regional Chief Operating Officer.  Given the timing of this announcement, I want to be clear that Pam’s departure is in no way related to yesterday’s Washington Post story.