VCU Health Systems

Richmond, VA

MCV Hospitals and Physicians of the VCU Health System is a 750-bed tertiary care medical center located in downtown Richmond, Virginia. It is the Health Sciences Division of the Virginia Commonwealth University, and serves as the training site for over 3,600 health sciences students. MCVH is well known for service to indigent patients, its designation as a Level I Trauma Center, transplantation programs, and many specialty units.

MCV Hospitals and Physicians offers a variety of specialties, including cancer research, treatment and rehabilitation; early diagnosis and treatment of chest pain and strokes; organ transplantation; head and spinal cord trauma research, including providing specialized neurological and surgical services; burn and wound healing; neonatal intensive care; and genetic research.

Nearly 100 specialty clinics and patient care centers are part of VCUHS, and many have received national and international praise. Among those are the Heart Center, the Neurosciences Center and the Massey Cancer Center. The Heart Center includes the second-oldest heart transplant program in the U.S. In addition, hospitals around the country have emulated the Heart Center's innovative strategy for diagnosing and treating heart attacks, which prompted Fortune magazine to name VCUHS one of the eight best hospitals in America for treating heart attacks. The multidisciplinary Neurosciences Center provides comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of neurological and neurobehavioral disorders. The multidisciplinary Massey Cancer Center was designated as a clinical cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1975 with the award of its first core grant and has had continuous NCI center funding since that time. Since its inception it has served as a regional referral center for the state.

VCUHS serves as a regional trauma referral center for the southeastern United States and was the first hospital in Virginia to be designated a Level I Trauma Center. More than half a million patients visit the hospital and its clinics annually.

Virtually all contemporary medical services are available at VCUHS. They are provided by MCV Physicians, the group practice of more than 500 faculty physicians who are affiliated with the hospital. More than 60 members of MCV Physicians have earned rFebruary 7, 2007ysicians' nominations of their peers.

The MCVHP network of patient care facilities includes 750 beds at MCV Hospitals. VCUHS also operates a number of neighborhood facilities throughout the Richmond area, including the Hayes E. Willis Health Center of South Richmond, a primary care facility that offers public health services for predominantly uninsured and underinsured patients; MCV Physicians in the Park at Stony Point, a comprehensive outpatient group practice located in Richmond's western suburbs; and a variety of specialty practices providing services ranging from family counseling to radiation oncology to sports medicine.

Clinical placements for interns and residents are many and varied. Everyone is involved in the emergency department through "duty" assignments. Intensive Care Units and Psychiatry typically are assigned to residents or clinical faculty, while most student assignments have been to in-patient areas, clinics such as the Infectious Disease Clinic have served as student placements.