Effective July 1, 2000, the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System was established through a merger of the clinical activities of the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, MCV Physicians, and the VCU School of Medicine.

The VCU Health System is the culmination of seven years of strategic planning designed to protect and enhance our position in the health-care marketplace. It is an unprecedented reorganization in the history of the University. All participants — physicians, hospital administrators, and the VCU community — agreed that the time was now to combine mutual clinical goals and finances under one Chief Executive Officer within one governance structure.

This new organization will work toward aligning incentives for the hospital and physicians and combining clinical operations to achieve cost savings. But it is more than about managing limited resources. It is about ensuring that we protect our mission to provide the best possible patient care, to serve underinsured and uninsured Virginians, and to support health-care education and research. It also will allow us to pursue innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to caring for the health of individuals and the communities that we serve.

This is an extremely exciting time for Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Health System, and we are proud of the hard work and dedication of our health-care providers to guarantee the future of our health-care mission.

Eugene P. Trani
President
Virginia Commonwealth University
Chair, Board of Directors
VCU Health System