Reporter June 8 2018

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, through the Institute for Medicine and Public Health (IMPH), Center for Health Services Research and the Department of Emergency Medicine, has established a new Center for Emergency Care Research and Innovation (CERI) to help determine the best care for patients who experience trauma or require emergency services — even before they get to the hospital.

Although military personnel often suffer ankle and knee fractures requiring surgery, there’s no definitive consensus on when they should stop using crutches and start putting weight on their injured limbs again.

Student-run free health clinics, a hallmark of most medical schools across the country, not only provide valuable clinical experience for the students who volunteer there, but may actually reduce hospital utilization by the patients in their care, according to a Vanderbilt study recently published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Former NFL quarterback and two-time Pro Bowler Marc Bulger recently visited with patients and families at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Two years ago, Melinda New, MD, associate professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, and nurse practitioner Lisa Milam, MSN, WHMP, opened a specialized clinic called the Center for Vulvar and Vaginal Disorders.

On a Thursday afternoon at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, volunteer Gena Moran pops into a patient room on the fifth floor to invite a young patient and her family to participate in a bingo game about to begin in the hospital’s butterfly garden.

The conversion of the eighth floor of Medical Center East (MCE)-North Tower on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center campus from outpatient space to inpatient beds is now complete and the new unit is scheduled to open on Tuesday, June 19.