Richmond, VA: Hunter Holmes McGuire VAMC

Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), Richmond, VA

The Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, located in Richmond, Virginia, is a 427-bed facility offering primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare in medicine, surgery, neurology, rehabilitation medicine, skilled nursing home care, and palliative care. Richmond is a national referral center for heart, lung and liver transplantations, and a tertiary care referral center for traumatic brain injury, open-heart surgery, oncology, and vascular diseases. As a teaching hospital, McGuire VAMC enjoys a strong and mutually beneficial affiliation with the Medical College of Virginia and has residency programs in virtually all general and specialty areas of medicine, rehabilitation, surgery, psychiatry, and dentistry.

Established in 1993, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program at the McGuire VAMC builds on the many years of experience of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service in providing quality care for persons with disabilities. The clinical goal of the program is to maximize the functional recovery of active duty personnel and veterans who sustained a brain injury. Indeed, the functional gains made by patients who participated in our program are consistently at the level of or exceed national benchmarks for brain injury rehabilitation programs. Since November 2000, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program at the McGuire VAMC has achieved a three-year accreditation status from the Commission of Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program has a capacity of ten inpatient beds. Admissions to the Inpatient Program are usually one of two types: 1) admissions for acute inpatient interdisciplinary rehabilitation, or 2) admissions for post-acute interdisciplinary evaluations. Rehabilitation services are provided by a dedicated team of specialists which includes a physiatrist, resident physiatrist, rehabilitation nurses, case manager, neuropsychologist, physical, occupational, kinesio- and recreation therapists, speech language pathologist, vocational rehabilitation counselor, and social worker. The program offers comprehensive interdisciplinary assessment and treatment, medical management, case management, orthotics, as well as education and training for brain injury survivors and their families.

The research focus of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program at the McGuire VAMC is to pursue advancements in care and outcomes for individuals with brain injury. The program is an active participant in several collaborative research projects sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center and has close ties with the TBI Model Systems site at the Medical College of Virginia.