University of Virginia Health System

The University & Environs

Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University of Virginia located in Charlottesville VA, offers 21st century education in an historical setting. As part of the University, The University of Virginia Health System includes the hospital medical center, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Health Sciences Library. The UVa Health System is designated a Level I Trauma Center. Our geographical location offers a referral base to provide primary, secondary and tertiary care to people from the Charlottesville area or people referred from the rural areas of central, western, and southern Virginia. Current estimates are that the cardiothoracic referrals are drawn from a population of over one-and-a-half million. The unusual nature of this referral practice is emphasized by the fact that our average patient lives more than a 100 miles from the medical center. Thus, a part of our training program includes our residents interacting and collaborative with referring physicians at a distance from the hospital.

University Hospital

The medical facilities are fully accredited by the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The main University Hospital consists of 632 beds on eight floors, is organized along the service center concept, and employees a staff of 4,255 people in addition to the 2,500 faculty and students. The Division of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery is one of five divisions of the Department of Surgery (the others being General Surgery, Oncology, Transplant, and Pediatric Surgery). The division of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery is also aligned with the Heart Center.

The physical facilities for cardiothoracic patients in the Division of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery include:

• a 25 bed acute care nursing unit for adult cardiothoracic patients (additional beds on other nursing units are available when needed)
• a 4 bed Thoracic Intermediate care unit (TIMU)
• a 10 bed TCV Post-Operative Unit under the sole direction the thoracic faculty
• as many pediatric beds as may be needed
• three operating rooms equipped specifically for open heart surgery with a fourth operating room for major thoracic operations
• an Endoscopy Suite with laser support staffed by a full-time R.N.

Additional support facilities include:

• three cardiac catheterization laboratories which perform approximately 3800 cardiac catheterizations/year
• a modern pulmonary function laboratory
• a stat laboratory for the immediate performance of blood gas analysis and electrolyte studies
• a pediatric intensive care unit
• a newborn intensive care unit
• an accredited non-invasive vascular laboratory
• a coronary care unit
• three fully-equipped and active cardiovascular research laboratories
• a Heart Center Clinic designed to provide outpatient care for cardiothoracic patients along with other Heart Center patients
• a Division of Pediatric Cardiology performing 200 pediatric cardiac catheterization per year and operating 8 field clinics each month in rural areas of Virginia
• the Division of Pulmonary medicine in the Department of Internal; Medicine, which is active in clinical and laboratory research
• the Division of Cardiac Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesiology, which manages all open heart surgery in the operating room
• a team of certified clinical perfusionists who conduct all clinical cardiac perfusions
• full-time cardiologists and pulmonologists dedicated to thoracic transplantation