Clinical Facilities

The University of Virginia School of Medicine was the tenth medical school to be established in the United States, and was authorized by the University of Virginia Board of Visitors at its first meeting in 1819. The school opened in March 1825 and the Doctor of Medicine was the first degree granted at the University in 1828.

Currently, University of Virginia Health includes the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, extensive research facilities and the tertiary care University of Virginia hospital, which has more than 600 beds. The University of Virginia Medical Center has regularly been one of only 15 major teaching hospitals to be ranked among the nation’s top 100 hospitals, according to Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals. And, the UVA Hospital has been ranked the number one hospital in Virginia for the past years, and Becker’s Hospital Review rated the UVA Hospital in its Top 100 for 2017. Furthermore, the University of Virginia’s Cardiac Program has been regularly rated as a Top 50 program by US News & World Report.

The UVA University Hospital has over 35 operating rooms, all of which have been recently renovated to have state-of-the-art facilities. In recent years, the medical center added over 100 beds, 75 of which are private critical care beds. The new hospital tower, which opened in 2020, includes dedicated cardiac and hybrid operating rooms, a new cardiac and vascular ICU, private inpatient rooms, OR lounge and locker rooms.

The Heart and Vascular Center is located on the fourth floor of University Hospital. The cardiothoracic surgical floor is a 30 bed unit with 6 beds dedicated as an intermediate care unit for general thoracic and cardiac surgical patients. The 28 bed cardiovascular intensive care unit is immediately adjacent to the ward and is designated for adult cardiac surgery, lung transplant recipients, and complex vascular surgery patients. There is also a pediatric ICU of 10 beds and a pediatric surgical floor for the pediatric congenital heart surgery patients.

The intensive care unit is staffed with dedicated nurse practitioners and physician assistants, as well as intensivists. The surgical floor is staffed with dedicated cardiothoracic surgery nurse practitioners. In addition to the nurse practitioners and physician assistants, surgery and anesthesia residents rotate on both the cardiac and thoracic surgical services.

The Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center provides clinic space, imaging services, as well as radiation and chemotherapy treatment facilities.

The outpatient clinic areas are staffed with RN care coordinators and LPNs. In addition, nurse practitioners and residents actively participate in clinic. It is an expectation that the Thoracic Surgery residents will participate in the outpatient office visits on a weekly basis. The General Thoracic Surgery clinics are held in the Emily Couric Cancer Center, while the Cardiac Surgery clinics are held in the Heart & Vascular Center.