Kris Rooney, MD, Named Chief Wellness Officer at Valley Preferred and Lehigh Valley Health Network

Kris Rooney, MD, has been named the new Chief Wellness Officer with Valley Preferred, the preferred provider organization associated with Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). Dr. Rooney, a Pediatric Hospital Medicine Physician with LVHN’s Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital, brings renewed energy to the health network’s efforts to identify and address factors contributing to health care provider stress and fatigue. A Mayo Clinic survey of physicians found that, nationally, 42% experienced symptoms of burnout in 2021.*

A member of the LVHN Wellness Committee, Dr. Rooney has served as the Department of Pediatrics Physician Wellness Champion for the past four years. She is currently active in several initiatives supporting graduate medical education and pediatric departmental wellness and serves as a consultant regarding resident and fellow well-being – having been involved in several national workshops related to physician well-being, resilience, and reducing physician burnout.

“As a woman, wife, mother, dedicated physician, and teacher, Dr. Rooney is the right person for addressing this issue with understanding and compassion,” says Mark Wendling, MD, Valley Preferred’s Executive Director. “Our physician wellness program has already made great progress in identifying specific areas contributing to burnout and bringing providers tools to help manage stress. I know we will make continued progress under Dr. Rooney’s leadership.”

Dr. Rooney is a proactive medical professional involved in teaching, lecturing, and community service in addition to caring for her patients. Along with her recently appointed role of Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Rooney is the Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Pediatrics, and Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program. Her teaching capacities include serving as a USF SELECT Program Pediatric Faculty Development Mentor and in the LVHN Pediatric Residency Faculty Mentor Program. She has been an invited speaker at many educational events, nationally and regionally, and has received numerous awards and honors including the Jacobi Faculty Teaching Award Certificate of Excellence and the Penn State Children’s Hospital Pediatric Resident Teaching Award.

Holding a Doctor of Medicine from Penn State University School of Medicine, she completed post-graduate work at Penn State Children’s Hospital, Hershey, Pa., and was a selected member for elite clinical education in the American Pediatric Association’s Advancing Pediatric Educator eXcellence (APEX) Teaching Program. Dr. Rooney is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in both general pediatrics and pediatric hospital medicine.

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* https://etactics.com/blog/physician-burnout-statistics

About Valley Preferred

Valley Preferred, a preferred provider organization aligned with Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), is dedicated to Achieving Clinical Excellence® through the development and implementation of innovative programs to improve health care delivery and value in the community. Formed by Lehigh Valley Physician Hospital Organization, Inc. (LVPHO), Valley Preferred has a corporate philosophy consistent with the goals of the Quadruple Aim: Better health. Better care. Better cost. Better clinician experience. Collaboration is essential to achieving these goals. Working together, and driven by data insights from Populytics, a population health management and data analytics company, clinicians are able to deliver even more proactive, informed, and targeted care. Valley Preferred also endorses Employer Health Solutions, a partnership of multifaceted health and wellness resources available through LVHN and Populytics. For more information, visit https://www.valleypreferred.com/ and https://www.populytics.com/.