We are Concerned Citizens of Charlottesville and Patients of UVA Health who are troubled by what we have heard from many UVA Health professionals over the past year.
Thank you for creating this website and allowing us to speak openly about the true horrors at UVA Health right now. This administration is the most toxic and corrupt administration that has ever run the hospital. They do not want to be questioned or challenged, and if they are you are met with intimidating meetings, retaliation, gaslighting, demotions, and potential termination. This leadership style is everything we have all learned not to do. It is known that when leaders lead this way, there is almost certainly something that they are trying to hide or cover up. The administration only cares about themselves and their salaries. They certainly do not care about patients or their employees. The c-suite has expanded more than it ever has. They hire people who are connected to them who will be loyal and not challenge them. It is quite obvious that those of us who have been at the health system for a while who have raised concerns are wanted out. Many of us refuse to cave to their disgusting and frankly disturbing leadership style and they cannot stand it. Therefore, we are met with fear and intimidation so that we will leave the institution. We have studied their behavior for a while now and their narcissistic tactics are so obvious - constantly on the offensive, and endless denial that they are aware of these issues which have been raised many many times by employees. Furthermore, when patient safety concerns are brought up, they get buried by the chairs. And, it has gotten to the point where employees have been asked to stop filling out safety concern reports because the chairs and administration don't want to hear about it anymore so that they continue to pretend that all is well. Speaking of chairs.. they have essentially all been replaced under this administration which again goes to show that they want allegiance. It is known that UVA's president is aware of these complaints concerning the health system, yet we continue to work in this poisonous environment everyday because we believe in UVA's actual mission. It's a shame we are in this situation because UVA really is a wonderful institution and Charlottesville has an amazing community. To ALL of the leaders of UVA - this is a cry for help. Please stop playing politics and get our health system and frankly our employee's mental health back to a safe place so that we can be the very best. We will stand together and continue to speak out as loudly as we can until something is done. You are better than this, UVA. Do the right thing.
I think our evaluations are also telling. It’s very clear that UVA is an organization with no concern for its people when your direct supervisor rates you a 2/5 but your direct Peers (physicians you work with day in and out ), on an anonymous 360 survey, rate you 4.8/5. The lack of concordance is stark. The disconnect between even the lowest level “leaders,” and the people they supposedly “lead,” is astounding. This is indicative of a failure of leadership at the Chair level, CMO level on up. Even the most early, inexperienced leaders know, having your finger on the pulse of your team is critical. Taking the time to understand what drives your people is fundamental. Asking “what brings you to work everyday,” can be enlightening. So you may ask, what would lead a “ leader” to rate one of their people a 2/5? How about coming in early and leaving late? How about staying for hours past the end of your shift to assist newly minted attendings with absolutely no mentorship or help with procedures and management of patients? A 2/5 for performing the leaders job. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
From a doctor fearful of posting anonymously who asked us to share:
The culture of fear is real. I have witnessed bullying and threatening behavior towards trainees and faculty alike. It seems this administration believes themselves to be above humanity. The only important thing is their own egos and survival. Nothing else matters. Not patients. Not physicians. Not staff. Most importantly not patients. That is a serious problem given that we take care of the sickest patients around and we have been a trusted institution. It’s hard to accept that a few people who are only interested in themselves could take down a prestigious institution like UVA. But that’s what’s happening.
And it is true that physicians and trainees have been asked to falsify records. It’s an ongoing conversation that everyone is afraid to talk about in the open. The administration will try and take you down if you disagree with them in any manner. I’ve been a lot of places and never experienced anything like this in an environment that is supposed to be empathetic, healing and life-promoting.
Don’t forget about how they forced healthy people under duress to take an experimental VAX, and when we got sick the employees from that experimental vaccine, the doctors there refused to treat us at called us anti-VAX most of us are now disabled from the experimental vaccine that they pushed into our arms under dress when they told us, our religion wasn’t good enough, so they openly discriminated against us, and our religions, which is a constitutional violation, or that our medical exemption wasn’t approved, they threatened us with termination to stick a needle in our arm that ultimately made us very sick and the doctors there are still touting that the vaccinations are safe and effective. The administration is so toxic at UVA. It’s not even funny anymore they’ll only hire their friends to be in the c suite….
Thank you for creating this website and allowing us to speak openly about the true horrors at UVA Health right now. This administration is the most toxic and corrupt administration that has ever run the hospital. They do not want to be questioned or challenged, and if they are you are met with intimidating meetings, retaliation, gaslighting, demotions, and potential termination. This leadership style is everything we have all learned not to do. It is known that when leaders lead this way, there is almost certainly something that they are trying to hide or cover up. The administration only cares about themselves and their salaries. They certainly do not care about patients or their employees. The c-suite has expanded more than it ever has. They hire people who are connected to them who will be loyal and not challenge them. It is quite obvious that those of us who have been at the health system for a while who have raised concerns are wanted out. Many of us refuse to cave to their disgusting and frankly disturbing leadership style and they cannot stand it. Therefore, we are met with fear and intimidation so that we will leave the institution. We have studied their behavior for a while now and their narcissistic tactics are so obvious - constantly on the offensive, and endless denial that they are aware of these issues which have been raised many many times by employees. Furthermore, when patient safety concerns are brought up, they get buried by the chairs. And, it has gotten to the point where employees have been asked to stop filling out safety concern reports because the chairs and administration don't want to hear about it anymore so that they continue to pretend that all is well. Speaking of chairs.. they have essentially all been replaced under this administration which again goes to show that they want allegiance. It is known that UVA's president is aware of these complaints concerning the health system, yet we continue to work in this poisonous environment everyday because we believe in UVA's actual mission. It's a shame we are in this situation because UVA really is a wonderful institution and Charlottesville has an amazing community. To ALL of the leaders of UVA - this is a cry for help. Please stop playing politics and get our health system and frankly our employee's mental health back to a safe place so that we can be the very best. We will stand together and continue to speak out as loudly as we can until something is done. You are better than this, UVA. Do the right thing.
I think our evaluations are also telling. It’s very clear that UVA is an organization with no concern for its people when your direct supervisor rates you a 2/5 but your direct Peers (physicians you work with day in and out ), on an anonymous 360 survey, rate you 4.8/5. The lack of concordance is stark. The disconnect between even the lowest level “leaders,” and the people they supposedly “lead,” is astounding. This is indicative of a failure of leadership at the Chair level, CMO level on up. Even the most early, inexperienced leaders know, having your finger on the pulse of your team is critical. Taking the time to understand what drives your people is fundamental. Asking “what brings you to work everyday,” can be enlightening. So you may ask, what would lead a “ leader” to rate one of their people a 2/5? How about coming in early and leaving late? How about staying for hours past the end of your shift to assist newly minted attendings with absolutely no mentorship or help with procedures and management of patients? A 2/5 for performing the leaders job. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
From a doctor fearful of posting anonymously who asked us to share:
The culture of fear is real. I have witnessed bullying and threatening behavior towards trainees and faculty alike. It seems this administration believes themselves to be above humanity. The only important thing is their own egos and survival. Nothing else matters. Not patients. Not physicians. Not staff. Most importantly not patients. That is a serious problem given that we take care of the sickest patients around and we have been a trusted institution. It’s hard to accept that a few people who are only interested in themselves could take down a prestigious institution like UVA. But that’s what’s happening.
And it is true that physicians and trainees have been asked to falsify records. It’s an ongoing conversation that everyone is afraid to talk about in the open. The administration will try and take you down if you disagree with them in any manner. I’ve been a lot of places and never experienced anything like this in an environment that is supposed to be empathetic, healing and life-promoting.
Don’t forget about how they forced healthy people under duress to take an experimental VAX, and when we got sick the employees from that experimental vaccine, the doctors there refused to treat us at called us anti-VAX most of us are now disabled from the experimental vaccine that they pushed into our arms under dress when they told us, our religion wasn’t good enough, so they openly discriminated against us, and our religions, which is a constitutional violation, or that our medical exemption wasn’t approved, they threatened us with termination to stick a needle in our arm that ultimately made us very sick and the doctors there are still touting that the vaccinations are safe and effective. The administration is so toxic at UVA. It’s not even funny anymore they’ll only hire their friends to be in the c suite….
I heard a junior faculty was pressured to falsify a medical record so a supervisor could get credit for a surgical procedure.
I heard that too!