The University of Virginia Health System
Charlottesville, Virginia

The primary clinical training site for the residency program is the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center, a Level I Trauma Center which opened in March, 1989. UVA serves as a regional acute care referral center as well with a large central Virginia cachment area. The Emergency Department located on the main floor consists of 40 patient beds, all of which are monitored. The Emergency Department completed a 24-month, 4 million dollar renovation in September 2001. The ED now includes:

• 3 resuscitation rooms
• 1 dedicated peds resuscitation room
• A seven bed connected but autologous Pediatric Emergency Department with its own entrance and waiting area
• A six bay "fast-track" area-Express Care
• A newly designed women's care area - The Women's Center for Emergency Care
• Dedicated orthopedic rooms
• Radiology rooms with on-site X-ray
• A five bed dedicated Chest Pain Center

The annual department census is over 60,000, 22% of those are pediatric patients, and 12.5% are over 65 years old. Of the total patient census, 17% are admitted with 2.5% to an intensive care unit and 0.5% directly to the OR. There are 2,000 yearly trauma admissions (1834 in 1997 vs. a mean for US Level I trauma centers of 1830) through the ED (90% blunt, 10% penetrating). The UVa ED patient mix crosses all socioeconomic borders with a remarkably diverse patient population. return to top

Culpeper Regional Hospital
|Culpeper, Virginia

During the PGY-3 year, residents perform a 1 month clinical rotation in the Emergency Department at Culpeper Regional Hospital (CRH) in Culpeper, Va.  CRH is located about 45 minutes North of Charlottesville.  Visit the CRH website for more information.

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Additional Rotations

Other operations of Emergency Medicine to which the residents will be exposed include:

• Optional electives in Edinburgh, Scotland; Fairbanks, Alaska; Bryce Canyon, Utah;
• Pegasus Critical Care Transport Aeromedical Program (residents are not required to fly);
• Lifeguard Aeromedical Transport
• Prehospital EMS Program
• Blue Ridge Poison Control Center, and Medical Command and Communications
• Ultrasound Program (see below)

The department of emergency medicine considers training in ultrasound a required piece of resident education.  During training, residents will be expected to become skilled in bedside clinical ultrasound for the procedural assistance and for the rapid triage of the critically ill or undifferentiated patient.

It is expected that residents should be proficient with the technical aspects of obtaining quality images in adults and children, understand the indications and limitations of study and be skilled in the administrative responsibilities of this technology. Ultrasound imaging equipment is also available to assist with ongoing basic science and clinical research.  Residents are encouraged to participate in this research.                      return to top