For the past six or seven years we've been designated nationally as a level one trauma center.
In essence, to be a level one trauma center, you need to be able to take care of the entire spectrum of injured patients, pediatrics and elderly, any sort of reimplantation digits, any sort of orthopedic, neurologic, you have to be able to handle the whole spectrum and you also have to do research and you have to teach future doctors. I myself and my partner Forrest Callan, we take care of all of the injured patients that come in during weekdays and my other partners who are all  trauma surgeons, we split the weekend. So, in essence we have a group of six physicians that care for all the severely injured patients here. We have RN's, nurses, technicians, radiologists, radiographers, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons and respiratory therapists and physicians of multiple other specialties who will participate in the care of our patients in order to provide optimal, safe care. Operating rooms are available 24/7 and that are staffed 24/7 so we never have to wait for a crew to come in from home to deal with a trauma surgery case. It's immediate. There's no question that this is the best trauma center I've ever worked in, in terms of outcomes in terms of esprit de corps. We look after each other as partners and as a group and as a team. We also have some really remarkable outcomes. It's a great deal of skill and a lot of teamwork and camaraderie that really does I think separate us from the average trauma center. There's very good evidence that patients admitted with moderate to severe injuries have a 25 percent lower risk for mortality if they're cared for in a
dedicated trauma center like ours. To care for severely injured patients, we're notified when they arrive. We're down there in the E.R. making sure that they're resuscitated and treated quickly. We evaluate their injuries, decide whether they're going in the intensive care unit or somewhere else. And then if we don't have to operate on them, we coordinate with the specialists, orthopedics in neurosurgery usually that we'll have to operate on them and make sure it's safe to operate on them. Then after they're over their acute injuries and they're recovering we make sure that they get physical therapy and occupational therapy and rehabilitation and then often if they're multiple trauma patients, we'll see them back in clinic and make sure they're doing okay. We take care of the sickest most injured patients available and we do so in a catchment area of more than 20 thousand square miles. And it's what we do every day and it's what our passion is. And so I think that's a good reason to come to the University of Virginia with severe injuries. If you want to be cared for by people who do this as their main gig, are passionate and dedicated to it, then you're at the right place if you come here.