Ballad Health Northwestern Region president accepts national role with healthcare company

Interim chief executive officer named at Holston Valley Medical Center

Lindy White, president of Ballad Health’s Northwestern Region operations and chief executive officer of Holston Valley Medical Center, announced today she has accepted the opportunity to serve in a national role with a leading healthcare company. She will remain in her current role until Friday, July 1.

White’s accession to her new position, working nationally with one of Tennessee’s leading healthcare companies, LifePoint Health, comes after a long and successful career with Ballad Health. LifePoint, based in Nashville, owns and operates community hospitals, health systems, physician practices and post-acute facilities in 29 states.

Ballad Health leadership will consult with the Kingsport community advisory board for input on the selection of a new CEO of Holston Valley. In the interim period, Rebecca Beck, current chief operating officer of Holston Valley, will serve as CEO of Holston Valley, while Ballad Health chief operating officer, Eric Deaton, will serve as interim president of the Northwestern Region.

“I love Ballad Health and our team,” White said. “It has been a pleasure to work alongside these resilient team members during some of the toughest times known to healthcare, as we’ve pursued goals not only locally for our beautiful communities, but for healthcare in the Appalachian Highlands and rural healthcare nationwide.

“I will cherish the wisdom I’ve gained over my 30-year career in healthcare and will spend this next phase of my journey continuing to give back to the greater good.”

White assumed her role in the Northwestern Region in 2019, after first being named the Kingsport market CEO in late 2018. She began her career in healthcare as a staff accountant at Smyth County Community Hospital, eventually becoming the hospital’s CEO. She also served as the CEO of Franklin Woods Community Hospital and Woodridge Hospital.

While in her role with Ballad Health’s Northwestern Region, White oversaw the successful re-opening of Lee County Community Hospital in Pennington Gap, Virginia, and championed healthcare quality at the hospitals in her purview.

In fact, Holston Valley achieved numerous awards for cardiac and vascular quality, including:

• Mission: Lifeline® Gold Receiving Quality Achievement Award in 2021 for implementing the American Heart Association’s specific quality improvement measures for patients who suffer severe heart attacks.
• American College of Cardiology’s 2020 Chest Pain – MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award. Holston Valley was one of only 140 hospitals in in the country to receive the honor.
• U.S. News and World Report for High-Performing Hospitals recognition for high performance in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), heart failure treatment and abdominal aortic aneurysm reporting.

Other Northwestern Region hospitals that earned acclaim during White’s tenure included:

• Norton Community Hospital garnered a spot on the Lown Institute Hospital Index, coming in at No. 1 in 2020 on its list of rural hospitals with an A+ ranking in patient outcomes, an A in value of care and a B+ in civic leadership.
• Hawkins County Memorial Hospital and Hancock County Hospital gained recognition for rural healthcare from The Chartis Center of Rural Health and the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

“Lindy has served with compassion and integrity,” Deaton said. “Her steadfast leadership helped our entire healthcare system navigate through the most challenging time any of us have seen in our careers. The trust she has built and earned throughout the Ballad Health system is an inspiration to all of us, and we are so grateful for having had the opportunity to work with her. More importantly, we are grateful to call her a friend.”

Ballad Health’s planned growth and expansion of services for the Northwestern Region, including the construction of a pediatric emergency room at Indian Path Community Hospital and continued enhancement of cardiac services at Holston Valley, will continue.

Beck has a deep history with Ballad Health and has been with Holston Valley since 2018. Prior to her role at Holston Valley, Beck served as CEO of Hawkins County Memorial and Hancock County Hospital. While there, she was named by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the 60 rural hospital CEOs to know – the only person from Tennessee or Virginia to appear on the prestigious list.

Also under Beck’s leadership:

• Truven Health Analytics named Hawkins County Memorial as one of the top 100 hospitals in the country. The company also selected the facility as one of the 17 winners of the Everest Award, which honors those in the top 100 that have attained the highest current performance and fastest long-term improvement.
• CareChex, an information service of Quantros Inc., named Hawkins County Memorial among the top 10% in the nation for patient satisfaction in overall hospital care, overall medical care and overall surgical care. Hancock County Hospital received the same patient satisfaction recognition in 2017.
• In 2015, the National Rural Health Association named Hancock County as one of 20 critical access hospitals to earn a best practice designation for patient satisfaction.

Before leading those community hospitals, Beck served as director of surgical services at Bristol Regional Medical Center, a role she earned after working as the hospital’s associate director of surgical services and anesthesia. Before she worked in surgery, Beck served in risk management at Bristol Regional, where she had oversight of the performance improvement department, performed root-cause analyses and managed insurance claims for integrated physicians.

“We have built a strong succession plan, and I’m very blessed to have worked with an amazing team of leaders,” White said. “I am excited about the future success of Ballad Health and the important role the Northwestern Region will continue playing in serving the needs of the entire region.”