The Mission of the University of Virginia Medical Center is to enrich the quality of human life through improving health, advancing medical and scientific knowledge, and creating an environment for professional preparation of individuals dedicated to health care service. The tripartate mission of service, research and education is exemplified in current initiatives undertaken to respond to the rapidly changing health care environment.

The UVa Medical Center has a long tradition of Patient-Centered Care, now being expressed in an extensive reorganization effort. Direct care providers in all disciplines are joined along service lines and report to a single administrator to assure that experts in different fields communicate freely and can spend as much time possible in direct patient care. Quality improvement activites are centered at the direct-care level, capturing the spirit and intent of continuous quality improvement. All administrative functions are organized to support direct patient care, from personnel support to multidisciplinary continuing education to financial systems. Fewer administrative levels exist in the leaner organization, enabling more direct contact between top administrators and those providing care. The reorganization effort has also energized the spirit of caring among personnel as the commitment to patient satisfaction is reconfirmed.

The main University Hospital is located on the historic Grounds of the the University of Virginia. The state-of-the-art facility, occupied in 1989, consists of 549 beds on eight floors. Specialized care units include a Medical Intensive Care Unit, a Thoracic-Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit, a general Neurological/Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, a dedicated, self-contained Burn/Wound Care Unit, a General Clinical Research Unit (supported through the National Institutes of Health), a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, inpatient and outpatient dialysis units, and a Psychiatric Medicine unit.

Each clinical department offers a wide range of specialized services, including a major regional heart center, an internationally known neurosciences program, specialized clinics in oncology, organ transplant programs, multidisciplinary pain management, psychiatry, comprehensive epilepsy (including inpatient service), diabetes and endocrinology, and specialized children's services. The gamma knife program, providing noninvasive treatment of intracranial conditions, draws patients from all over the world. A unique stroke program focuses on prevention and early intervention through the use of educational, medical, and surgical interventions. Special efforts have been made to simplify surgical admissions by instituting a pre-assessment center that brings all services to the patient. The UVa Health System is a designated Level I Trauma Center. Pediatric and adult emergency services including multiple trauma, are available continuously. The Pegasus emergency transport service provides patient transportation via helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft.

The Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center, part of the UVA Children's Hospital, is a 23-bed facility providing specialized multidisciplinary care for children. Located a few miles from the main Grounds, it provides inpatient facilities for long-term rehabilitation and interdisciplinary care of pediatric orthopaedic patients in conjunction with inpatient units at University Hospital and outpatient facilities at KCRC, the main Grounds, and outlying clinics. Innovative programs focus on patients with developmental delays, chronic illness, and recent orthopaedic and neurological injuries.

The UVa-HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital is a fifty-bed state-of-the-art facility opened in 1998. In addition to general rehabilitation beds, the facility houses specialty units, including monitored beds for acquired brain injury, a spinal cord injury unit, and a ventilator unit. Other services include an aquatics center, an outpatient/day treatment program, pulmonary rehabilitation, and an overnight ADL suite.

Nearly 60,000 adult and pediatric patients are treated by the Emergency Department each year. Patient care is overseen by 15 full-time faculty members, specializing in both pediatric and adult emergency care. Emergency medical services are coordinated with area rescue squads by an extensive pre-hospital program; within the emergency department is the base station for all area calls. Pegasus, the UVa Medical Center's emergency air transport service, operates aircraft capable of carrying critically ill patients from scene to hospital or between facilities as a facet of Level I Trauma Center care.

Ambulatory care services were provided in our Outpatient Facilities during 678,182 visits in 2007. Clinics are located adjacent to University Hospital in the Primary Care Center and also in the University Hospital West complex, the Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center, the Northridge complex, the Moser Radiation Therapy Center, the McCue Center, and several satellite clinics in surrounding communities. Primary care and outpatient services are being revised and expanded to respond to health care initiatives and the changing marketplace.

Located adjacent to the Rehabilitation Hospital, the newly-constructed 50,000 square foot Musculoskeletal Center is designed to provide state-of-the-art rehabilitative care into the 21st century. The facility offers one-stop shopping with services including:

• Spine and Sports Care Clinic
• Rehabilitation Medicine Outpatient Clinics
• Pain Management Center
• Special Procedures / C-Arm Fluoroscopy and Recovery Area
• Outpatient Therapy Center
• Prosthetics and Orthotics
• Rehabilitation Engineering
• Radiology Services including MRI
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Rheumatology

Research Facilities are available in all basic sciences and clinical specialties. Laboratories are located in Jordan Hall (the medical school building), Cobb Hall, medical research buildings MR-4 and MR-5, the Fontaine/Aurbach complex, and the University Hospital West complex. Two new research buildings currently under construction — the Carter-Harrison Research Building and the Ivy Foundation Translational Research Building — will turn scientific discoveries into technologies and therapies to benefit our patients and the public at large. Complete vivarium facilities are included in each complex.

Several research-supported centers operate on the Grounds. The School of Medicine has fostered collaborative research and development of technology by creating interdisciplinary centers, including the Electron Microscope Center, the Protein and Nucleic Acid Research Facility, the Fluorescence-Activated Center, the Computer Technology Resource Center, and the Laboratory for the Single Cell.

Patient-centered clinical research takes place in the General Clinical Research Center, a 10-bed inpatient unit supported through the National Institutes of Health. Patients and healthy research participants assist in the study of disease entities under faculty-developed research protocols.

The Office of Continuing Medical Education provides a wide array of learning opportunities for the practicing physician. Programs are offered throughout the year with a number of annual meetings sponsored by departments within the School of Medicine. The goals of the conference sessions include: improvements in patient care, discussion of recent advances in research associated with patient care, and the opportunity to develop new skills in physicians' professional roles.

A series of weekly conferences, Medical Center Hour, deals with issues relating to values, ethical judgments, and the benefits and costs of medical care to individuals and society. Discussions, which are open to the public, focus on rational and thoughtful analysis of situations in terms of alternative decisions for health care providers. The Continuing Healthcare Education offices sponsors credit-earning workshops and seminars throughout the area for nurses and other health care professionals.

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