After 16 years with the Veterans Administration, Roy L. Hawkins Jr., the acting director of the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, is leaving for the private sector.
Hawkins, 39, will become the chief operating officer at the Chippenham Johnston-Willis Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia working for Hospital Corp. of America. Hawkins leaves Jan. 9 and said he starts his new job Jan. 15.
No replacement has yet been named, though officials from the VA’s Sunshine Healthcare Network hope by next week to have a clearer picture of when a temporary replacement will be named, according to spokeswoman Mary Kay Hollingsworth.
The move represents both a career advancement and salary increase, said Hawkins in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. He currently earns $126,359 and received a $5,000 bonus, according to hospital records.
Haley’s deputy director at Haley since 2012, Hawkins assumed the role of the hospital’s acting director in November when the current director, Kathleen Fogarty, went on a temporary assignment to run VA’s Southwest Healthcare System, which includes the troubled Phoenix VA hospital.
The new job was the culmination of years of offers, said Hawkins, and not the result of problems that have plagued the VA system.
Hawkins said that aside from serving as a top Haley administrator, he also was president of the National Association of Health Service Executives and in traveling the country in that role, received a number offers.
“This opportunity presented itself a few months ago and, as it became something I was interested in, I began the process of working with HCA recruiters.”
Hawkins started his career as a Graduate Healthcare Administrative Trainee, served as an Administrative Officer, Health Systems Specialist, and was the Assistant Director at Orlando VA Medical Center before coming to Haley, Fogarty wrote in an email to the staff Wednesday morning, informing them of Hawkins’ pending departure.
“During his time with us, Mr. Hawkins has been a valued member of our leadership team helping JAHVH to right size our organization, balance our budget and improve efficiencies, and open the new Polytrauma addition, Primary Care annex, new Mental Health Clinic, and Hospice and Progressive Care units,” Fogarty wrote. “Under his leadership we were able to expand our OR capacity, invest in data based decision making and analytics, focus on employee satisfaction and development, and host the 33rd National Veterans Wheelchair Games.”
He also served at a time when the VA system as a whole came under withering fire over deaths as a result of delays in treatment. While records provided to Congress earlier this year showed none occurred at Haley, the VA’s Office of Inspector General visited the hospital over the summer as part of its ongoing look at how hospitals are handling scheduling and other patient care issues.
The visit, said Hawkins, “just shed light on a lot of issues in our system nationally, things that we are actively engaged in working to correct. It was things that the IG had to do based on findings at other facilities.”
The hospital, he said, “has fared fairly well in all IG reviews,” he said, The IG visit “helped us be a more efficient organization,” said Hawkins. “Based on the reports and findings, we viewed ourselves against those. It was a very enlightening process.”
Hawkins said he has fond memories of his VA career.
“I have enjoyed a very successful career at the VA and I would not change a thing about the career progression experiences I had,” he said, “Some of my proudest moments were ensuring quality, safe and efficient healthcare for our nation’s veterans that Haley is nationally known for.”
There are some things about the VA that Hawkins said he won’t miss.
“Some of the things about the system that have frustrated me are a lack of sense of urgency within the organization — not intentional — and being saddled with bureaucracy and politics of running one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems, and on top of it, a government organization. It requires a lot of directives and policies to get anything done. All of that results in a lack of sense of urgency to really move the needle.”
Another frustration, said Hawkins, had to do with how the VA nurtures leadership.
“Leadership matters,” he said. “Investing in leadership. Ensuring leaders have appropriate training, and appropriate succession planning in place. Ensure you value your leaders and their contributions to the organization. That is happening now, but I think we can do a better job of developing the future leaders of the VA.”
One of the biggest things that Hawkins will miss is the Tampa community.
“The folks here really support the veterans and I am going to miss that,” he said.
Though Hawkins is leaving, the Haley community likely hasn’t seen the last of him.
A frequent attendee at the monthly Operation Helping Hand dinners held to honor the active duty wounded, ill and injured patients, Hawkins said he hopes to return soon.
“I promised to come back to one of the dinners,” he said. “Maybe the one in February.”