MISSION
WNC Health Network exists to convene, connect, and support stakeholders in community health to improve health, equitably, across our region.
VISION
Our vision is to support healthy and thriving communities and care systems in western North Carolina.
VALUES
Our values are collaboration, integrity, respect, and innovation. We are community-centered and we are focused on results.
Our philosophy:
- We make excellence accessible and affordable
- We use human-centered approaches, building a foundation of empathy with the people we’re designing for and with
- We are committed to co-designing tools, processes, and products with our customers to ensure their unique needs are met
- Whenever possible, we support BUILDING capacity, rather than BEING capacity to sustain locally-led improvements
- We focus on developing processes that meaningfully engage our customers’ communities and partners
Our philosophy and values are rooted in a deep commitment to equity. For us, this commitment begins with an understanding of the history of our region, a responsibility to recognize the ways in which our role in the region can foster or hinder increased equity, and humility in naming and changing our own “how” when our ongoing learning and listening reveals the need.
History
In 1995, a group of dedicated individuals decided to make a difference in healthcare in western North Carolina. They began to identify, explore, and implement opportunities to collaborate among the area’s hospitals and healthcare systems. WNC Health Network, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation, includes 17 hospitals in western North Carolina.
Collaboration started with quality improvement and achieving cost savings and value through aggregation of group purchasing volume. It developed over time to include a regional health information exchange and focus on population health. In 2013, Capstone Health Alliance was created as a separate subsidiary of WNC Health Network to house the group purchasing program.
Today, WNC Health Network works together and with partners to improve health and healthcare. Partners in western North Carolina are engaged to foster healthy and thriving communities and care systems.
Board of Directors
Steve Heatherly
Chair
CEO, Swain Community Hospital / Harris Regional Hospital
Karen Gorby
Vice-Chair
President & CNO, Angel Medical Center
Tracy T. Buchanan
Treasurer
President & CEO, CarePartners Health Services
Michelle Fortune
CEO, St. Luke’s Hospital