Roberta Tinch
The Inova Hospital in Mount Vernon has served the nearby residents since 1976. In challenging times with the pandemic, their new president at the Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, Roberta Tinch, has the experience needed to meet that challenge. With initiatives from the other Inova locations, patients benefit. “We work collectively,” Tinch said. “We share positive best practices.”
In October, Roberta Tinch joined Inova Mount Vernon from HCA Johnston-Willis Hospital in Richmond, a 300-bed hospital and Level 3 Trauma Center, where she served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, she had positions at HCA Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center in Fredericksburg, and Brandon Regional Hospital in Tampa, Florida.
Mount Vernon is a full-service hospital facility with an emergency room that just opened a few years ago, and Tinch feels many aren’t aware of the hospital’s facilities.
“We don’t tell our story enough,” she said, and that’s a goal early on in her time at Mount Vernon. “I want to increase the exposure of what we do here,” she said.
In addition to her job as president, she is taking on a position as the Administrator of the Musculoskeletal service line, which is a concentration on orthopedic joints. “That’s an area I’m passionate about,” she said. Mount Vernon since it is a nationally recognized Inova Joint Replacement Center and the Inova Rehabilitation Center.
Tinch is a Virginia native, attending University of Virginia for undergraduate, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Virginia Commonwealth University where she earned her master’s of health administration. In addition, Tinch has done extensive volunteer work with the YMCA, March of Dimes annual March for Babies, and she has a seat on the University of Mary Washington’s College of Business Advisory Board.
Her knack for helping out in the community and volunteering will be useful in the Mount Vernon area as well, and she’s planning on reaching out to the Fairfax County Public Schools to volunteer. “I’m interested in seeing what opportunities there might be,” she said.
But first, there’s her infant daughter Harper, born this spring. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, her baby arrived in good health, and the pandemic restrictions at the hospital could be seen as a good thing to Tinch. The fact that there weren’t as many visitors “gave me some time with our daughter,” she said.
The pandemic has given some the impression that it might be better to avoid hospitals, but at Inova, they’ve gone the extra distance to make it safe. “We have taken extra measures,” said Melissa Poretz Riddy, Director, Eastern Region Government & Community Relations at Inova. Their program, “Safe@Inova,” focuses on all the COVID-19 precautions. “All surfaces receive a thorough antiviral cleaning between all patient visits throughout the day and a deep cleaning each evening.”
Their safety steps are outlined on a video program called “The Motew Minute,” with Steve Motew, Chief, Clinical Enterprise at Inova Health Systems. “Safety remains our number one priority,” he said.