Executive-2018-Summer

personal and professional, helps Valenty reach her ultimate goal— helping create a healthcare system that is better for parents and their children. One of the biggest challenges to meeting that goal is sheer numbers. “Our biggest challenge is just being able to serve as many people as possible in the community,” Valenty said. In the nearly two decades she has lived in Gwinnett County, Valenty has watched the area grow exponentially and has seen that increase in population affect the number of patients seeking treatment at CHOA. “We saw more than a million patients last year and that number will keep going up as communities like Gwinnett and metro Atlanta continue with this rapid population growth,” she said. In the last couple of years, CHOA has opened new pediatric urgent care centers, including one in Dacula and one in Chamblee-Brookhaven to help redistribute patient traffic from crowded CHOA emergency rooms. “We are continuing to try and grow in the suburbs,” Valenty said. “We always surprise ourselves with how much greater the need is in these locations versus our projections. The challenge is to meet all those needs at once.” The needs are so great, CHOA has embarked on developing a monumental new medical campus in Brookhaven near the intersection of North Druid Hills and I-85. Announced in 2017, the new 70-acre campus will include a 260,000-square-foot advanced pediatric center, opening in July, as well as a brand new hospital, new medical and business office buildings for staff members and a 20-acre park with green space and walking trails. “We need to keep growing to better serve Atlanta and Georgia. This new campus allows us a lot of room to spread out and grow,” Valenty said. Final build-out of the campus is not planned to be completed until 2026, but Valenty said current facilities, like Egleston Hospital will stay open until new facilities are fully operational. “We are still trying to add beds to all of our facilities to meet current demand, which continues to grow,” she said. In the meantime, Valenty will continue to work within Gwinnett and the northeastern counties in her region to develop positive relationships on behalf of CHOA and children’s healthcare. It’s her calling. “I’ve always felt the call to serve,” she said, “Especially to serve children.” the EXECUTIVE 7