VCU news

By Cassie Williams Jones

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 11, 2013) – Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center will host an open house this week to showcase its new Advanced Trauma Resuscitation Room, the only one of its kind in the area. 
  
VCU Medical Center is the only Level I trauma center in Central Virginia nationally verified by the American College of Surgeons since 2004, the highest level of trauma center verification in the United States. The Advanced Trauma Resuscitation Room, almost four times larger than the former space, is uniquely designed to handle mass trauma events such as those caused by natural disasters, large-scale accidents and terrorist attacks. 
  
Reporters are invited to attend an open house on Friday, Sept. 13, at 11 a.m. at VCU Medical Center’s Emergency Department, 1250 E. Marshall St., ground floor. More than 100 agencies of emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters and other first responders have been invited to the event. Media must be escorted on hospital property, and those planning to attend should R.S.V.P. to cwjones@vcu.edu by 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 13.  

The opening of the Advanced Trauma Resuscitation Room is one phase of a total renovation of the facilities dedicated to emergency services at the VCU Medical Center. A state-of-the-art renovation of the pediatric emergency room, the triage area and radiology services is already complete and in use. A final phase of the renovation to include new treatment areas for the care of patients experiencing a medical emergency such as a stroke or a heart attack, as well as an area devoted to the care of behavioral health emergencies, will be complete in July 2014. 

As a verified trauma center staffed by board-certified emergency physicians, VCU Medical Center offers 24-hour, on-site surgical staff, dedicated operating room space and around-the-clock access to laboratory services and subspecialties, including orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, cardiac surgery, anesthesiology and radiology. The Trauma Center treats more than 4,000 injured patients each year.   

Emergency Services at the VCU Medical Center provides emergent care to more than 98,000 patients annually. Comprehensive emergency programs give patients in Central Virginia access to life-saving and nationally acclaimed treatment for the critically ill, including through the Chest Pain Program, the Cardiac Hypothermia Program, the Stroke Program, the Neurosurgery Program, the Burn Program and the Adult and Pediatric Trauma programs. In addition, VCU Medical Center's Critical Care Transport Team, VCU LifeEvac, provides helicopter transport 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.