CEO,
Southern West Virginia Health System
Photo by Whiteheart Photography.
By Ty McClung
Everyone hopes their childhood dreams will come true. While for many it seems like just that, a dream, it’s reality for Lisa King Leach. After more than two decades in health care administration, she has lived out her childhood dream of helping people in her role as chief executive officer for Southern West Virginia Health System (SWVHS).
“When graduating from kindergarten, our class was asked to dress in attire that reflected what we wanted to be when we grew up,” King Leach says. “I dressed as a nurse and stated, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a nurse to help people when they are sick.’”
Though she later decided nursing wasn’t the right fit, her early experiences, including taking nursing assistant classes in high school and working as a registration clerk at Sistersville General Hospital, solidified her passion for health care.
“When I had an opportunity to work at Sistersville General Hospital in 1996, it did not take me long to realize health care was still my passion,” she says.
King Leach credits her late father for inspiring her approach to leadership and service.
“His priority was always to do the right thing,” she says. “He showed us the importance of working hard and treating others with respect. I can still hear him saying, ‘True happiness comes from making others happy.’”
King Leach began her education in 1994, graduating with a bachelor’s degree from Wheeling Jesuit University. She later earned her master’s in business administration from Salem International University in 2008.
Her career has included leadership roles such as CEO of Sistersville General Hospital, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Valley Rural Health Alliance, director of business development at Camden Clark Medical Center, director of performance improvement for the West Virginia Primary Care Association and COO for Ritchie Regional Health Center. Since becoming CEO of SWVHS, she has overseen its growth and impact across Southern West Virginia.
“I always joke about my resumé in that I have worked at numerous health care agencies in several positions but at the same time boast that it has provided me with a tremendous amount of experience with health care and people,” King Leach says.
King Leach explains that as CEO, it is her job to guide her staff on the path of being a great organization. She says she and her team strive to provide the best patient experience they can while also recognizing the challenges facing patients in the seven Southern West Virginia counties they service.
“We want to make sure the culture for staff is top notch, delivery of our care to patients is excellent and that we are good stewards of our financial position. We recognize the importance of growth to meet the needs of those in our service area,” she says. “We want our communities to be healthy—that is why we exist.”
In 2018, the acquisition of Madison Medical marked a key step in strengthening service offerings. This was followed by the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility in Man, providing modern, comprehensive care to meet the needs of the local population. In 2019, a full-time pulmonologist was added to the staff, enhancing specialized respiratory care.
SWVHS recently completed its three-year strategic plan, which included the acquisition and transformation of three new clinics located in Oceana in Wyoming County and Whitesville and Wharton in Boone County. Pharmacies were added to two of these locations in recognition of transportation barriers in these rural communities. In 2023, SWVHS built a new clinic in Guyan Valley to better serve rural populations.
“This merger was critical to assure primary care access to those rural areas,” King Leach says, adding that SWVHS is eager to look for more opportunities like these in the future. Mentoring her team is important to King Leach, as she believes it helps cultivate excitement and creativity within the organization.
“The commitment to helping staff become better leaders is critical to any organization’s success,” she says. “We cannot lead if staff is not willing to follow. Instilling the desire to follow results in staff wanting to come to work, wanting to help the organization grow and wanting to be a part of a great team.”
King Leach says she has learned that the success of her company is based on the culture they have worked to create, which focuses on patient satisfaction, improved health outcomes, engaged staff and financial stability and is critical to the company’s future.
Hygeia Facilities Foundation, Inc.-SWVHS Merger
In February 2022, Hygeia Facilities Foundation, Inc. decided to close several locations in Southern West Virginia, including sites in Whitesville, Wharton and Sherman Jr.-Sr. High School in Boone County and Oceana in Wyoming County. Seeing the need for primary care facilities to remain open in these rural areas, Southern West Virginia Health System (SWVHS), led by CEO Lisa King Leach, decided to merge with Hygeia to make sure patient needs didn’t go unmet.
“We understood the negative impact the closures of these facilities would have on the communities, so there was never a doubt that we would pursue merging Hygeia into our organization,” King Leach says.
Visitors to the clinics will notice several upgrades, the majority being those on a cosmetic scale as each clinic went through a remodel. Other changes included implementing a scheduled appointment status and more support staff to recognize and resolve social and economic barriers to care.
King Leach says that after a brief adjustment period, staff at the clinics are encouraged by the smooth transition.
“As you would expect, staff was nervous but cautiously optimistic about the change and have since become some of our greatest cheerleaders,” she says.
King Leach also says the combined resources will enhance health care offerings in both Boone and Wyoming counties as well as the surrounding areas.
“As we are a larger organization, we have the resources and synergism to provide training opportunities and support that were not available to their staff previously,” she says. “It has been great to watch the comradery develop between the employees. As we have a staff person who focuses on identifying and improving social drivers of health and community outreach, we can also assist patients with various social needs.”
