In 2025, Richmond, Va.-based VCU Health addressed a persistent issue highlighted in employee engagement surveys: parking.
For CEO Marlon Levy, MD, employee well-being remains the top priority in 2026.
“We’re always looking for ways to reduce the stress of working in a complex healthcare environment, and our downtown academic medical center is the largest safety-net hospital in the state of Virginia,” Dr. Levy told Becker’s. “We look for big and small ways for us to do that.”
One of the most pressing concerns for employees at the downtown facility was the cost and difficulty of parking, which consistently ranked among the top issues in surveys.
“We made a very deliberate decision, which previously had been difficult, to eliminate all parking costs for our team members downtown,” he said. “If it’s always the No. 1 or No. 2 point in a survey, then you’ve got to pay attention to it. It’s seemingly a small thing, but to many of our team members, not a small thing.”
As of Jan. 1, parking for team members is now covered by VCU Health. As the new year begins, Dr. Levy said the system is keeping its focus on alleviating stressors in the healthcare environment, including frustrations with the EMR and new technologies, financial stress tied to the broader healthcare landscape and changes at the state and federal levels.
VCU Health maintains a retention rate above the national average among its 15,000 employees, and sustaining that rate will be a continued focus. The system has also reduced its reliance on agency professionals, which Dr. Levy credits to efforts around compensation, work-life balance and wellness.
Addressing key financial pressures
Dr. Levy’s second major focus for 2026 is ensuring financial sustainability.
“Those, of course, are interconnected,” he said. “If the health system is financially healthy, it’s much, much easier for us to fulfill our mission. My job is to make sure that fundamentally, the finances are solid enough for our team members to not worry about finances, but focus on the mission, on our patients, on each other and on high quality and safety.”
One area the system is monitoring involves federal legislative changes that could increase the volume of uncompensated care.
“We’re tracking that, modeling that, and trying to understand what the low or high impact of that would be based upon assumptions,” he said. “That’s a real concern, but it’s more likely to be manifested a little bit later in the year — not tomorrow — but of course, we always have to be thinking downstream.”
Construction costs across Virginia are another top concern, especially as the system advances several projects — including new office buildings, surgery centers and renovations of shell space.
“We’re also planning a large inpatient tower on our downtown campus — badly needed — and the cost of construction in Virginia is startling in how quickly it’s risen and how high it’s risen,” he said. “The cost of doing business, and the cost of construction specifically, is a very close No. 2 in terms of what we’re obsessed about.”
Balancing inpatient and outpatient access
VCU Health is expanding access by building capacity on both the inpatient and outpatient sides. On the inpatient side, it added 20 beds to its downtown facility and plans to add 20 more by the end of 2026 through build-outs and repurposed space.
Dr. Levy said the system does not prioritize one setting over the other.
“The challenge is, how do you make both of them work, and what adjustments can you make in budgets and in timelines for both entities?” he said. “The need is equally pressing for both. We have a significant footprint in rural Virginia, and we can’t run from our obligation there. It’s every bit as important to our mission as our presence in urban parts of our service area.”
Now in his second year as CEO, Dr. Levy is also looking outward more than before.
“The pandemic and its aftermath was always an ‘all hands on deck’ recovery, and it was very difficult to think about facing outward and reaching out to other communities beyond our immediate area,” he said.
Dr. Levy said it is important to do so in several ways, including representing the system to external stakeholders and learning lessons from similar institutions and importing those back to his teams.
“That’s definitely one of the roles that I need to fulfill, and to be very intentional about,” he said.
