Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is committed to our community.
For the last 45 years, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has been devoted to our patients and their care. We take our role as a nonprofit healthcare provider very seriously, never turning away anyone in need.
Our mission is exemplified through our Family Health Connections Mobile vans that provide free and sliding scale healthcare to working families 200 percent below the poverty line, who wouldnât otherwise receive care. The Sentara 3D digital mobile mammography van travels to community sites around Northern Virginia to provide accessible mammograms.
We partner with many organizations, such as the National Coalition of 100 Black Women to provide cancer and diabetes awareness, which includes health screenings. Members of the team are also actively involved in community charity activities such as the March of Dimes walk, United Way Day of Caring, ACTS iWalk, and the American Cancer Association to name a few.
Thank you for your ongoing trust, confidence, and partnership. We look forward to working together to create a healthier, stronger community and improve health every day.
Visit Sentara Healthcareâs Community Benefit Report to learn more.
Sentara Healthcare will triple its financial support for Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) with a commitment of $130 million over the next five years. For the period 2018 through 2023, annual funding given by Sentara to EVMS will increase from a previous amount of $9 million per year to $26 million per year.
âAfter 46 years working together, the relationship between Sentara and EVMS has never been stronger,â said Sentara Board of Directors Chair, Henry U. âSandyâ Harris. âTogether, we are demonstrating the missions of both institutions and keeping the focus on patient care and innovation during this time of change in the health care landscape.â
âSentaraâs increased support will be transformational for our community,â said David Arias, Rector of the EVMS Board of Visitors. âIt will boost the educational and research capacities of both organizations â advancing our reputations regionally and nationally while enhancing the quality of care and making a real impact on the lives of Hampton Roads residents.âÂ
The additional funds from Sentara will allow EVMS to establish new academic programs, bolster existing ones and continue to advance its status as a nationally recognized medical school while supporting the development of the two organizationsâ shared medical campus in Norfolk as a quaternary mid-Atlantic regional medical center.
âSentara and EVMS have worked together as partners serving eastern Virginia for over 45 years. These two great community institutions work hard to anticipate the evolving needs of the many communities we serve,â says Howard P. Kern, President and CEO of Sentara Healthcare. âWe appreciate the exceptional physician and advanced practitioner graduates EVMS trains for our community, and we are proud to help them advance academic and research programs to help us both fulfill our community missions. It is Sentaraâs hope that this increased funding will enable EVMS to move forward with its strategic plan to ensure their strength and stability long into the future.â
EVMS has been a community-based medical school since its inception in 1972. Under a long-standing partnership, Sentara hospitals provide clinical teaching environments for EVMS students and residents, especially at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where EVMS physicians oversee the regionâs only Level I trauma center and provide tertiary and quaternary-level services found in university-based regional academic medical centers.
âOn behalf of the EVMS faculty, staff and students, I want to express our grateful appreciation to the Sentara Healthcare Board and management for their extraordinary support of our missions to educate and train the next generation of the healthcare workforce, advance medicine through new discovery, and provide care to those in greatest need,â said Richard V. Homan, MD, President and Provost, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Dean of the School of Medicine.
âI am confident that, through this increased funding, we have established a seminal and historic relationship between EVMS and Sentara which will support our faculty and provide many new and mutually beneficial programs to improve the health of the communities we serve.â
Funding from Sentara will support collaborative plans to establish the following EVMS initiatives:
— A Mastersâ Degree program in Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science supported by two full-time PhD faculty members to conduct research and performance improvement initiatives in healthcare disparities and population health management.
— The new collaborative Research Fund also will support translational research partnerships in biosciences and biotechnology research and development across multiple academic centers in Virginia and advance clinical best practice and outcomes research within the communities that we serve.
— $10.5M in endowments over three years through the EVMS Foundation to support endowed academic and clinical department chairs to support research and development of quaternary programs.
The Sentara mission to improve health every day ranges from providing Level I trauma services in partnership with EVMS to enhancing population health and disease management with innovative best practices through its clinical teams and Optima Health Plan. EVMS prides itself on its stated goal to be the most community-focused school of medicine and health professions in the nation while supporting world-renowned research in fertility, diabetes, and cancer.
Itâs one of the most common health issues for men as they grow older.
âAs gentlemen age, the testosterone thatâs in their body fuels the growth of their prostate so every guy that has testosterone and a prostate, it will eventually get larger. It happens in different rates in different people, but happens,â explains John B. Klein, M.D. of Potomac Urology. Â
Even though it may not be commonly discussed, every day Dr. Klein sees patients suffering from an enlarged prostate, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH.)
Symptoms include frequent urination, difficulty starting and stopping urination, inability to completely empty the bladder and frequent trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.Â
âUrinary symptoms do not necessarily indicate prostate cancer, a majority of the time theyâre from benign enlargement of the prostate. However, you can have prostate cancer and benign enlargement of the prostate âso itâs important to evaluate for both concurrently,â explains Dr. Klein.
Once the prostate screening comes back negative, there are a number of options to treat an enlarged prostate, everything from daily medications and in-office procedures to outpatient surgeries.
Dr. Klein was recently recognized as a Rezum Center of Excellence for his expertise in treating BPH. While pills to treat BPH have been around for years, Dr. Klein finds many of his patients discontinue taking those medicines because of side effects like dizziness and adverse effects to sexual function.
RezumÂź is one of the minimally invasive procedures offered in office and takes just minutes to perform using steam to decrease the prostate. Laser enucleation of the prostate is another option.
Dr. Klein says this outpatient procedure has been offered at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center for the last 11 months and is ideal for patients with moderate and larger prostates. The newest option Sentara Northern Virginia is offering BPH patients is Aquablation, a surgery using water to resect the prostate.
The developments are exciting for Dr. Klein who looks forward to sharing the news with the community.
âThis is one of the only centers in Northern Virginia that performs all three of these treatments options. It basically gives people a one-stop shop for their treatment, no matter size and shape of their prostate.â
Yolanda Smith is a take-charge kind of woman. The retired Army veteran, mother of three and current Human Relations contractor is used to getting things done.
So, when her fibroids turned painful, she knew she had to take action.
âIâve had fibroids for a number of years. Iâll say at least 10, but in the last 18 months theyâve increased their size dramatically and the pain had become unbearable,â explains Smith.
Fibroids are the most frequently seen tumors of the female reproductive system. Itâs estimated between 20 to 50 percent of women of reproductive age have fibroids, although not all are diagnosed.
In the majority of the cases, the tumors are benign (non-cancerous), but the symptoms can be severe. While some women have no or mild indicators, other women have severe and disruptive symptoms including heavy, prolonged menstrual cycles, abnormal bleeding between periods, pelvic and/or back pain and frequent urination. Smith suffered through many of these symptoms.  Â
âThe pain became unbearable during my cycle and the bleeding was extreme. I cramped beyond belief. I was exhausted, I would stay home from work because I was so exhausted,â she remembers.
Thatâs when she turned to her doctor for help when an ultrasound showed three fibroids had increased in size. He gave her three options:
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Live with the pain
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Have surgery
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Have a hysterectomy
Smith knew that a hysterectomy wasnât the right treatment option for her, thatâs when her primary care physician recommended âUFEâ or Uterine Fibroid Embolization and referred her to the specialists at the Heart & Vascular Center at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
âI had never been to Sentara before, Iâm used to military hospitals where Iâm in my safe zone. But, from the time I called to get a consultation with a physician there, Tina went above and beyond to make sure I got an appointment and got the necessary paperwork needed. She actually followed up with my military hospital to assure that documents were forwarded to Sentara to aid me in seeing a doctor there. I just thought that was exceptional,â said Smith.
Following clinical consultation, it was decided Dr. Venu Vadlamudi, an Interventional Radiologist, would perform the procedure.
âInterventional radiology is a field where we perform minimally invasive procedures using radiology guidance,â explains Dr. Vadlamudi. âI tell patients to imagine me as a plumber, working completely inside of the pipes.â
In Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE) or Uterine Artery Embolization (UAE) as itâs also known, Dr. Vadlamudi goes in through the artery with a catheter and blocks the blood flow to the fibroids using embolic agents (small particles or beads).” With the flow of blood compromised, the fibroids begin to shrink, taking with them the pain and symptoms.
âOver a matter of a few monthsâ time, these fibroids die away because youâve taken away their blood supply. But again, nothing is physically tied, itâs not like putting a suture on top of the blood vessel or going from the outside, itâs all done from the inside of the blood vessel,â explains Dr. Vadlamudi. âWe find itâs very rare new fibroids develop. So the overall success rate, especially from a technical standpoint, is well above 98 percent.â
In Smith’s case, Dr. Vadlamudi went in through a point above her wrist, leaving just a small nick after the procedure was completed.
âI donât have a scar, just a little dot where he went into my arm,â she says.
After a short hospital stay, Smith went home to recover with doctorâs orders to start easing back into her routines. After almost two-weeks, she returned to work with her pain fading each day, but her admiration for the team continues to grow.
âIt was just one of the best hospital visits I have ever had,â says Smith. âFrom the tech staff on down, everyone at Sentara Heart & Vascular Center was very attentive. They were very kind. Their bedside manner was exceptional.â
And, she offers this advice to other women living with fibroid pain.
âIf youâre suffering from fibroids, definitely do your research, consider UFE, and consider UFE at Sentara, they have the best staff!” she adds.
If youâd like to learn more about Interventional Radiology or what Sentara Heart & Vascular can do for you, call 1-800-Sentara or visit Sentara.com.
Today, Thursday, June 21, 2018, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center officially unveiled its newly renovated and expanded Sentara Wound Healing Center during a ribbon cutting attended by current and past Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center Board members, the Potomac Health Foundation Board, administration, physicians, community members and members of the team.Â
The Sentara Wound Healing Center has a history of offering its patients a comprehensive, specialized team approach in dealing with non-healing and difficult to heal wounds. This recent renovation permits easier access for patients and staff with larger doorways and halls. The expansion also includes more storage space and room for the introduction of an advanced treatment option: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
The addition of Sentara Wound Healing Centerâs two hyperbaric oxygen chambers will allow new opportunities for patients with slow healing, hard to treat wounds.
âBeing able to treat patients with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a huge advancement for our organization,â explains Dr. Carol Shapiro, Medical Director of Sentara Wound Healing Center, âThis is an exciting technology and even in our short experience, we are already seeing results.â
In Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, patients receive daily treatments of 100% oxygen delivered under pressure. The purpose of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is to promote healing in wounds which are stalling like, areas treated with radiation or because of a systemic disease, like diabetes. By breathing this 100% oxygen, wounds heal quicker, opening diseased or injured blood vessels.
For patients like Larry Boomer, an amputee and diabetic who has been fighting slow healing wounds for years, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has given him a new lease on life.
âIn the short time Iâve been doing this treatment, my wounds have healed up so amazingly. I had surgery on my foot and had a wound which was open for six months. Now, within 34 days, the wound is just about completely closed. Iâm just amazed!â says Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy patient, Larry Boomer.
âThis advanced technology is an incredible addition to the community and the Sentara Wound Healing Center. It wouldnât be possible without months of hard work by our dedicated team,â says Kathie Johnson, President, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
The state-of-the-art Sentara Wound Healing Center brings together a diverse team of doctors and specialists who work with a patientâs own physicians to develop a customized treatment plan and provide expert care for hard to treat wounds.
âThe addition of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy aligns with Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Centerâs mission and vision: to Improve Health Every Day and be the provider of choice for our community. The Sentara Wound Healing Center does this by elevating patient care and providing these important treatment options right in our patientsâ own backyards,â says Johnson.
If you or a loved one has a wound that just wonât heal, donât hesitate. Contact the experienced doctors, nurses and staff at the Sentara Wound Healing Center: 703-523-0660.
American College of Cardiology NCDR ACTION Registry Platinum Award recognizes high standards of patient care
Sentara Heart and Vascular Center at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has received the American College of Cardiologyâs NCDR ACTION Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2018.
Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is one of only 203 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.
The award recognizes the Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Centerâs commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that Sentara Heart and Vascular Center has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.
To receive the ACTION Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has demonstrated sustained achievement in the ACTION Registry for eight consecutive quarters and has performed at the top level of standards for specific performance measures.
Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.
âAs a Platinum Performance Award recipient, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has shown it is a leader in implementing standards of care and protocols for its patients,â said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, FACC, Chair, ACTION Registry; Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs, Brigham and Womenâs Hospital Heart and Vascular Center; and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. âBy meeting the requirements set forth in the registry and establishing a culture of providing guideline-recommended therapy, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is saving lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.â
The Center for Disease Control estimates that over 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery partially or completely blocks blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.
âThe Cardiac Catheterization lab achievements in the ACTION Registry is an attestation of all hard work poured into the endeavors of the EMS, Emergency Department and Cardiovascular service line. The efforts of all of our health care team cannot be overstated in providing state-of-the-art, lifesaving procedures to the most common and lethal disease of our century. We praise and support all the staff who devoted their time and hearts to raise the level of care in our beloved community,â said Dr. Khalid Abousy, Medical Director of the Interventional Cardiology at Sentara Heart and Vascular Center in Woodbridge, Virginia.
ACTION Registry empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.
Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associationâs Get With The GuidelinesÂź-Stroke Silver Plus and Target: StrokeSM Elite Honor Roll Quality Achievement Awards. The awards recognize the hospitalâs commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center earned the awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.
âSentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Associationâs Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,â said Kim Houser, RN, Coordinator of Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Centerâs Stroke Team. âThe tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidence-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.â
Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center additionally received the associationâs Bronze and Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll awards. To qualify for these recognitions, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patientâs arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
âWe are pleased to recognize Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center for their commitment to stroke care,â said Eric E. Smith, M.D., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. âResearch has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.â
According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the fifth cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
The team at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is dedicated to serving our patients every day.
One group is recognized for their hard work- not just inside the hospital, but outside the walls as well.
The ICU Team was named this yearâs Daisy Team Award winners.
This team spearheaded an initiative to serve food and provide dry, clean toiletries to a nearby homeless encampment, and this meant coming in several weekends to sort and prepare donated items.
Then, on the weekend they were serving food- it poured! The team didnât give up though, they toughed it out- and many folks who might have gone hungry that day had a hot meal.
The Daisy Foundation was formed by the Barnes Family in 1999 after the loss of their 33-year-old son J. Patrick Barnes. The nursing care that their son received when hospitalized profoundly touched his family, and they wanted to recognize nurses that provide exceptional care…while often stating, âI am just doing my job.â
Your jobs touch the hearts and lives of more than you know. The Daisy Foundation was developed to celebrate nurses.
The Daisy Nurse award is presented quarterly to SNVMC nurses who meet a high standard of care provided. The award was developed for the celebration of nurses who provide extraordinary compassionate and skillful care every day.
The Daisy Team award is presented yearly.
Chronic wounds affect about 6.5 million patients in the U.S. every year.
Over the last year, Howard Holcomb has become part of that group. The 76-year-old suffers from cellulitis, a condition where bacteria enters the skin and becomes inflamed. In Holcombâs situation, his extremities filled with liquid.Â
âMy skin is very tender, and I bleed easily,â explains the Woodbridge resident. âI had wounds on my arms, and my left leg looked like a balloon, it swelled up so badly.â
After spending nearly two weeks in the hospital and receiving a course of antibiotics, Holcomb was released, but an incision that doctors had made in his leg to relieve pressure wasnât healing as it should.
He was referred to the Sentara Wound Healing Center at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
âI went to the Wound Healing Center there at Sentara and met Dr. Shapiro and her incredible team,â says Howard smiling, âThey made all the difference.â
The Sentara Wound Healing Center, led by Dr. Carol Shapiro, is committed to determining the right plan of care for its patients.
âMany of our patients are diabetics dealing with ulcers,â explains Dr. Shapiro, Medical Director of Sentara Wound Healing Center.
âReally, our patients are people with a wound thatâs not healing. That can be from surgery where it opens up. It can be from an infection. It can be because somebody gets a cut in a briar patch and itâs not healing because of a foreign body in the wound. Any reason a woundâs not healing, we see them.â
The Center, comprised of a team of experienced wound healing specialists, work with the patient and his physician to assess symptoms, determine the underlying cause of a non-healing wound and customize the most effective treatment plan to stimulate healing.
âOur patients have access to our multi-specialty capabilities and specialists,â explains Dr. Shapiro. âWe have infectious disease doctors, plastic surgery, great general surgeons, podiatrists and an emergency department nearby for patients that have to be admitted for one reason or another.â
Mr. Holcomb says while he still has a long way to go, heâs noticed a difference, âBefore the Sentara Wound Healing Center, I didnât even know these services existed! They took care of all the wounds on my arms- theyâre all healed.â
He recommends Dr. Shapiro and her team to everyone he meets, âThere have got to be a lot of people that need this kind of help. They are the most incredible group Iâve ever been around. Theyâre so knowledgeable and experienced, but yet so personable, you just donât mind going there at all, and I love visiting with everybody. Everybodyâs so friendly.â
The team members at the Sentara Wound Healing Center pride themselves on delivering that kind of care and following up with everyone who comes through their doors. Theyâre also excited about a recent renovation and expansion of services.
The remodeled first-floor space allows for easy access with larger doorways, halls, and storage so patients and practitioners can move from room to room. T
The expansion also included room for the introduction of a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber or HBO therapy. HBO, as itâs known, is used in the treatment of complex wounds and illnesses.
âThe purpose of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is to promote healing on wounds which are stalling either because of a systemic disease like diabetes and vascular, or areas treated with radiation. By breathing this 100% oxygen, wounds heal quicker, thereâs disease to blood vessels, and this opens them,â explains Dr. Shapiro.
Dr. Shapiro says this is just one more way the Sentara Wound Healing Center is working to treat the community, but she advises everyone to never let an unhealing cut, especially on your foot, go too long.
To schedule your appointment with the Sentara Wound Healing Center, call 703-523-0660.
