Richmond children’s hospital, VCU look to finalize partnership

Elijah Hedrick

Contributing Writer

VCU will expand its reach in the medical community surrounding the campus by becoming partners with the Richmond Children’s Hospital beginning July 1.

After final approval has been voted on, VCU Health Systems will assume all the operations of the Children’s Hospital and the more than 300 hospital employees will become employees of VCU Health Systems.

“It brings cures that are found from studying directly to the patients right away,” said Pam Lepley, the interim executive director for university relations.

Lepley said medical centers that share knowledge and experience with the academic community can help everyone involved. The partnership will provide students with hands on learning and the hospital with future employees who will have been thoroughly trained, Lepley said.

“It’s nice to know that my child will be in well-trained hands five or 10 years from now,” said Regina Jarvis, the mother of a former Children’s Hospital patient.

Matt Brady, the director of public relations for the Virginia Children’s Hospital, said when the VCU Health System takes over the operations of the hospital it will streamline the hospital experience for the children. The referral process will now be within the same system, which will cut down on parents having to run back and forth to different doctors at the various urgent care facilities in Richmond.

The Children’s Hospital and the VCU Health System have worked together in the past coordinating clinical studies and even planning to build a free-standing 75 to 100-bed children’s hospital on the VCU campus. That plan fell through in March of 2007, when the project was expected to exceed its $140 million budget by more that $60 million.

Once the idea for the new hospital was abandoned, the two sides began working on a practical way to improve care at the existing hospital. They found that well-trained people were going to be the quickest and most cost effective of making an immediate impact, according to Brady.

Brady said the hospital and VCU are still going through the transaction process and are aiming to have all the paperwork and necessary items in place to begin their partnership and reach final approval on July 1.

The VCU Health System also controls operations at all MCV Hospitals and Clinics.