By Dina Weinstein 
  
Messages of the power of compassion, skilled healing, and collaboration were expressed at the open house for VCU Health Trauma Surgery’s new Administrative Office Building late last year. 
  
Held in the building’s central meeting space that still smelled of fresh paint and newly laid carpet, the gathering featured speeches by hospital leadership to mark the special occasion. They highlighted how the new facility will bring together VCU Health team members who are united in their work to heal those impacted by trauma. 
  
As the only comprehensive Level I trauma center in the region verified in adult, pediatric, and burn trauma, VCU Health has made a significant impact, with more than 70 years of excellence and leadership in trauma and burn care said Marlon Levy, M.D., senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences and chief executive officer of VCU Health System. 
  
“This team begins a new chapter in this physical space, which is really exciting to see, and to see both where it's come from and where it's headed,” Levy said. 

 The new administrative building is located at 1201 East Clay Street in downtown Richmond. It was previously a part of the Museum of the White House of the Confederacy (David Gray, VCU Health Arts in Healthcare)

Located at 1201 East Clay Street in downtown Richmond, the space was previously a part of the Museum of the White House of the Confederacy. In its repurposed use, Beth Broering, program director for the trauma center and Evans-Haynes Burn Center, sees the building as a unified setting for the trauma care team to work together with other departments, such as emergency medicine, anesthesia, orthopedics, neurosurgery, radiology, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, social work, and pharmacy, to name a few. 
  
“We invited all of the unit and department leaders that we are connected within the patient care continuum to give them the opportunity to see the space they share with us, and we share with them,” Broering said. “We will be able to collectively use this space as we build, grow, and sustain our processes of care, quality of care, and management of patients across the commonwealth.”
  
Rev. Marilyn J.D. Barnes, director of VCU Health Spiritual Care, remarked that the trauma center administrative building would now be a place of healing, where all would be seen, heard, and valued.
  
“Connect, support, console, and to be in community within this space,” Barnes said in her blessing at the ceremony, acknowledging the building’s former use. “May there be a calming spirit during times of chaos. May there be a spirit of comfort during times of grief. May there be a spirit of love during times of anger. And may there be a spirit of harmony during times of discord.”
  
Out of 95,000 patient visits to the VCU emergency department each year, more than 4,000 adult trauma patients, 630 burn patients, and 670 pediatric patients are admitted as a result of a traumatic event such as a motor vehicle collision, fall, drowning, house fire, or violent incident.
  
Of those patients, more than 700 have complex orthopedic or neurosurgical injuries.
  
“It takes the people at the tip of the spear, but it also takes the entire team that sits behind that work to make this a reality,” said John McCurley, M.D., interim president of VCU Medical Center and senior vice president of VCU Health.

 From left to right: Michel Aboutanos, M.D., medical director of the Level I trauma center and the trauma network, and Marlon Levy, M.D.,  senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences and chief executive officer of VCU Health System. (David Gray, VCU Health Arts in Healthcare)

Michel Aboutanos, M.D., medical director of the Level I trauma center and the trauma network, medical director of the Injury and Violence Prevention Program, and the Fletcher Emory Ammons Distinguished professor of surgery, was deeply appreciative of the VCU leadership, especially Shirley Gibson, DNP, associate vice president of Real Estate at VCU Health; and Levy for the  new space, its important strategic location next to the Emergency Department,  and credited their high-quality care to “the amazing multidisciplinary teams that comprise our trauma center.”
  
“Stop to think of what our function has become and the footprint we have now at the local, regional, national, and international level in every aspect of trauma care – our leadership and collaborative health system integration, our injury responsive mission, our community and EMS outreach programs, our military readiness program, or our social programming to tackle the social determinants of violence and injuries,” Aboutanos said. “Stop to ponder what we have become, of the paradigm shift that we have enacted on our trauma center to deliver not just adequate care, not just good care, but top-quality care that rivals any center in the nation.”
  
Aboutanos shared stories of just a few of the patients treated by these comprehensive care teams: survivors of human trafficking, people whose lives have been turned upside down unexpectantly by a fall or a motor vehicle crash going to work, people suffering from gunshot wounds and stuck in the vicious cycle of violence. He related how the trauma center has a holistic approach to the care of the injured, addressing the causes, mitigating the social determinants, and healing the consequences and sequela of traumatic injuries. 
 
The VCU Health trauma team hopes the new space will help to foster more patient-centered care approaches. Trauma and acute care surgeon Joshua Cole, M.D., sees the new location as a positive, bringing them in closer proximity to the emergency room and better connecting them with their extended teams, making a big impact on healthcare outcomes.
  
“I can't count the number of times where I'd be sitting at my desk, get a Trauma Team Alert and need to respond to the ED immediately. With this new location, we are much better able to do that now. Also now more of our team is located in the same space so when I get an idea for a project or even just trying to figure out how often something's happening to see if we can improve a process or procedure, previously, that would take an email, a phone call, documents back and forth,” Cole said. “But now I can just walk upstairs, tell everybody what I'm thinking, and I can go back and forth with them about what we're looking for, and we can get an answer right away.”

Relied upon regionally and respected internationally, learn about VCU Health’s Level I trauma center

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