Life-shaping experiences guide Cristy Page as she takes charge at the state’s cornerstone healthcare system.
Academic credentials, operating-room experience and workplace accolades make Dr. Cristy Page well-qualified to be CEO of UNC Health, North Carolina’s third-largest healthcare system.
But it’s her life experiences, things impossible to check off on a resume, that underpin her journey’s purpose, she says. That’s what guided her toward the corner office, overseeing a $7.4 billion operation.
“So, I never set out for all of this,” says Page, “but I look back, and I can see the different ways that my life was being formed and shaped to push me in this direction.”
Page spoke with Business North Carolina from her office, its large windows offering an expansive view of the UNC Chapel Hill campus near Kenan Memorial Stadium. At times, a sudden crane movement at the adjacent nursing school under construction can make one jump. That can be disconcerting, but it also shows the campus’ vitality and growth, says Page, the system’s first female CEO.
In November, Page succeeded Dr. Wesley Burks, who was CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine for six years before stepping down in July. Burks is focusing on NC Children’s, a 570-bed, standalone children’s hospital that UNC Health is developing with Duke Health, the largest unit of Duke University.
While responsibility for the proposed $2 billion NC Children’s rests with Burks, Page leads a statewide network of 20 hospital campuses, 900 clinics and about 56,000 employees. UNC’s medical school graduates more than 200 new physicians each year, has more than 2,000 faculty members and generates $600 million-plus in annual research funding.
Healthcare systems face rising costs for labor, construction and other goods, with the resulting escalating medical and insurance prices squeezing many patients. Medicaid expansion in North Carolina three years ago added more than 600,000 residents to the government-backed insurance plan for low-income residents. Now, lawmakers are deadlocked on how to pay for those rising costs.
“It is a unique time to have all of that at the same time,” says Page. “On the other hand, creative problem-solving, with other really bright people, and when it really matters, is kind of fun.”
As a state-chartered system, UNC Health has a responsibility to provide care for patients who can’t afford to pay.
“It is a tough thing to square, figuring out how to continue to take care of everybody, especially if they’re not able to access Medicaid or some forms of reimbursement,” she says. “We will. It is our mission. We will find a way.”
‘Force for good’
Growing up in Wilmington, Page says she would not have predicted her career trajectory. She was an excellent student, receiving a Morehead scholarship to attend UNC Chapel Hill. The program, now renamed Morehead-Cain, provided experiences she couldn’t have dreamed of as a child, she says.
While her family life was “wonderful,” it was marked by her father’s death from cancer when she was a teenager.
“Seeing the medical community come together and our church community being there for my family impacted the maturity of my faith, but also just the desire to be that kind of force for good for other families and people,” she says.
As Page majored in psychology, she thought about becoming a missionary or a minister, or possibly a medical career. An opportunity to attend a Morehead-related project in Zimbabwe in southern Africa proved to be pivotal to understanding both missions and medicine.
During her two-and-a-half months in Africa, she worked with doctors and nurses determined to help impoverished people, many of whom faced malnutrition and infectious diseases, yet retained a sense of joy and gratitude. At the time, one in 10 babies were infected with HIV.
“I learned something about humanity in all that, and I was drawn to serve in a way that I could connect with people on that level,” she says. “And it really felt like medicine was where my heart was being called.”
A gap year before starting medical school led Page to take a job at the Morehead Foundation, which administers the scholarship program. In seven months, Page visited 284 high schools in each of the state’s 100 counties.
Her job was to assess the selection process for the highly competitive scholarships, which pay for tuition, living expenses and programs. It was a sweet gig.
“When I did that, I went to a diner in every town and just went up to the counter and said, ‘Give me your best local dessert,’” she says. While she may have gained an extra pound or two, it also ignited a deeper appreciation for the Tar Heel state, even if she didn’t realize it at the time.
“I just met the most wonderful people, and I saw the beauty of our state,” she says. “I also saw the disparities that exist between rural and urban … not to mention some very delicious desserts.”
Always a Tar Heel
Page, who earned her medical and master’s in public health degrees in 2002, joined the UNC School of Medicine faculty in 2005. Burks and his predecessor, Dr. Bill Roper, supported Page’s career as she led the family medicine residency program from 2011-18, chaired the department of family medicine and served as the med school’s executive dean since 2019.
Staying in Chapel Hill for her entire career proved to be the right decision, she says. (Roper and Burks were recruited to UNC after holding key jobs in other states.)
“I didn’t want to have to move my family all around and in academia, a lot of times, you really need to go to all the top places for various reasons, and that’s how you work your way up,” says Page, who has two children. “I have roots here.”
Over the years, she’s continued to see patients, delivering babies for 20 years while also teaching. Much of her research and UNC work has involved rural healthcare.
“I enjoyed leadership, but I thought I would do teaching and leadership in a way that was helpful to get doctors in rural North Carolina,” Page says. “I feel really grateful to have work that matters, and that I feel a sense of purpose doing.”
She plans to continue seeing patients at least twice a week, either in the office or virtually. She wants to retain those practical connections.
“It’s important to me because of just the joy of doctoring,” says Page. “I need to know what patients are experiencing, and I need to know the struggles of documenting your charts and being a doctor. These decisions that we make in the bigger picture impact people in real ways.”
Westward ho
Page’s portfolio now includes many business decisions as UNC Health seeks to remain competitive in a rapidly consolidating industry. The system wants to build a 129-bed hospital in Buncombe County at a cost of $711 million.
Because of the state’s regulatory system limiting hospital construction, Page faces competition for those hospitals beds from three larger rivals. Florida-based AdventHealth has hospitals in Hendersonville and Columbus, while Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare operates the region’s biggest hospital, Mission Hospital
in Asheville. Winston-Salem-based Novant Health, the state’s
second-biggest system, also is making a pitch. A decision is expected by March 31.
A UNC Health hospital in Buncombe County would strengthen care in the region, including sharing services with UNC Pardee hospital in nearby Hendersonville. UNC Health manages that hospital, which is owned by Henderson County.
“We’re here to serve the patients of North Carolina. We’re lenient to our role as the state’s health system, so we won’t be growing in Chicago or somewhere else. But as far as North Carolina’s concerned, it’s a growing state. There are a lot of needs,” Page says. Advocate Health, the state’s largest system, owns hospitals in the Chicago metro area.
Given healthcare’s pressures, Page acknowledges her job is challenging. But UNC Health is ready to meet the state’s needs.
“I feel weird, but people ask me, ‘Are you freaked out?’ I feel a great sense of calm because we have already started on this endeavor that I’m describing.
“We see the different cuts coming, we’ve already prepared for these scenarios. We’re already underway on a plan for how to mitigate the impact, and actually to not just mitigate the impact, but to turn it around into something positive.” ■
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