As a young nurse in Illinois, Vivian White found herself serving as her 57-year-old mother’s therapy buddy and advocate after a severe stroke impacted the right side of her mother’s body.
White saw how intensive inpatient therapy helped her mother walk again and reach her goal: dancing at her son’s wedding a year later.
“Because of my mother’s four-week stay in a rehabilitation hospital and the phenomenal care she received, she was able to live the next 23 years of her life,” says White, who’s now the CEO of Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Richmond.
As a rehabilitation hospital, Encompass is focused on recovery after a life-changing medical event. Patients come to them from traditional hospitals, and the goal is getting them back to doing the things they love, with care supporting both physical and psychological healing. This care also now includes a wing of patients recovering their strength from battling COVID-19.
Making sure her staff members can do their best for patients means providing them with a work-life balance, White says. “I try to instill in people that to be good caregivers, we must take care of ourselves.”
Moving to Richmond in March 2019 with her family, White has gotten to know her new city better through a constant in her life, the American Heart Association. As a kid, she did door-to-door fundraising, inspired by her mother, who had heart issues related to having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.
Today, White is part of Richmond’s Circle of Red group, and she says, “American Heart has been a great introduction into what Richmond has to offer.”
