Laura Irvine ’96
Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer
Medical City Healthcare
Dallas, TX
While earning her undergraduate degree at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Laura Irvine ’96 became the first business school student to serve as a management intern at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center (now Baylor Scott and White Hillcrest)—it was a fortuitous placement. The for-credit internship introduced her to health care administration as a career path that combined both her business and personal interests. In addition, several of the administrators happened to be Trinity HCAD graduates who in turn introduced her to the Trinity HCAD Program stressing its structure and value.
Recognizing that value, Irvine enrolled in the program and completed her HCAD residency at Methodist Health Systems based in Dallas. She spent 21 years with the system in increasingly responsible roles including president and system executive positions. In August 2017 she joined Medical City Healthcare, an affiliate of HCA’s North Texas Division, one of its largest divisions, with 14 hospitals, 11 ambulatory surgery centers, 30 CareNow urgent care centers, more than 4,400 active physicians, and 17,000 employees in the North Texas area. As vice president and chief administrative officer, Irvine’s primary focus is to expand Medical City Healthcare’s service footprint with an integrated approach to network access and regional outreach, hospital operations, and strategic planning.
Despite the complexities inherent to a large network, Irvine says the constant change in the industry is what makes health care such an exciting professional field. “Even with past and potential future changes in delivery and payment models, one thing remains constant: our communities’ need for excellent health care services and providers’ desire and passion to deliver that.”
Irvine’s passion for providing excellence in health care has not gone unnoticed. In addition to recognition from professional organizations, Modern Healthcare magazine honored her with its “Up and Comer’s” award. The American College of Healthcare Executives awarded her its Early Career Healthcare Executive Regent’s Award and D CEO magazine listed Irvine among the area’s “Most Influential Business Leaders” in 2016.
Irvine credits the basis of her success to Trinity’s residency program which has a decades-long history of residency placements that provide a strong foundation of support for young graduates. The program “provided me with an entry into health care administration that I would not have achieved without an established and well-respected residency network,” she says. “Thus, I was positioned for success earlier in my career than I would have been without completing a residency program.”
When she isn’t working, Irvine and her husband spend many weekends cheering their teenage daughters’ volleyball games. “We enjoy seeing them excel in a team sport they love and from which they can learn life skills. When we are not in the gym, our family loves to travel.”
To young careerists about to enter the health care industry, especially women, Irvine offers some advice, “take your time in the beginning of your career to really understand hospital and other clinical providers’ operations. Always be mindful to ensure that you are bringing value to a project or team effort. Learn early to be an active listener meaning that you are taking others’ views into account and truly considering what they have to say.”
Words by Mary Denny
You might be interested in
