The Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a three-year training program fully accredited by the American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM).

VCU is the only Level 1 trauma center in Richmond and provides trauma and tertiary care referral service for an area that spans from Norfolk/Virginia Beach in the East to Charlottesville in the west, from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area in the north to the northern counties of North Carolina in the south. Such a large service area provides the Emergency Department with over 80,000 visits from a diverse patient population. Pediatric visits represent approximately 20% of these visits and the overall admission rate is 17%.

The VCU Emergency Department is recognized nationally for its innovative chest pain evaluation and treatment pathways. The Emergency Department provides medical direction for the Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA), the flagship of the VCU EMS system. RAA is an all-ALS EMS system with units constantly deployed around the city in a revolutionary system that ensures one of the fastest average EMS response times in the nation.

The mission of the Department of Emergency Medicine is to provide the highest quality adult and pediatric emergency patient care, education and research. Emergency Medicine began at VCU with the introduction of Emergency Medicine Faculty physicians in 1996.

We believe that our program provides Emergency Medicine Residents with an unsurpassed educational experience. We draw on nationally recognized resources as the foundation of this experience.  These resources include a highly developed city prehospital system under the medical direction of the Department, a high volume, heterogeneous patient population, the Virginia Poison Center, the Virginia Commonwealth University Reanimation Engineering and Shock Center (VCURES), and an enthusiastic faculty committed to teaching and research.  Faculty expertise in medical toxicology, pediatric emergency medicine, emergency medical services and research is in place and will allow for the future development of fellowships in these areas.

We expect our residency program to be considered among the nation's elite and our graduates to become the future leaders of Emergency Medicine.

For more information please call our Residency Coordinator, Lisa Johnson (804) 828-4860.