Connect

Since its earliest days, UVA Health’s Patient Placement journey has been defined by growth, innovation, and a steadfast commitment to safe, effective patient movement. In 2012, the Bed Center transitioned from Nursing Governance to the Patient Progression Directorate — marking the beginning of a new era focused on coordinated access and flow. By 2013, planning was underway for UVA Health’s first transfer process, and only a year later, UVA Health began outsourcing transfer functions to an off-site partner as a first step toward developing a dedicated center.

Meet the Teams Moving Patients Forward

At UVA Health, safe and effective patient movement is at the core of everything we do. Our Patient Placement Center brings together four critical departments that serve as the air traffic controllers of patient care:

• Regional Transfer Center: Connecting hospitals across the region to UVA’s specialized care.
• Bed Planning: Ensuring the right patient is in the right bed at the right time.
• MedCom: Coordinating EMS and medical transport with precision and safety.
• Discharge Transportation Coordinators: Helping patients transition smoothly out of UVA Health and back to their communities.

Together, these teams manage the complex flow of patients into, through, and out of UVA Health — always with the goal of safe, timely, and compassionate coordination.

Broadening the Scope

That vision came to life in 2015 when UVA Health launched its first Transfer Center. Later that year, the Bed Center physically co-located with the Transfer Center — strengthening collaboration and introducing the hospitalist admission and transfer coordinator (ATC) flow role to improve decision-making.

In the next several years, growth continued as Patient Progression expanded to include MedCom and Discharge Transport Coordination in 2017, broadening the scope of how patients were moved in and out of UVA Health. By 2019, all Bed and Transfer Coordination processes were migrated into EPIC — ensuring streamlined, system-wide workflows.

Strengthening Our Foundation

As the work matured, so did the infrastructure. In 2021, the teams moved into a larger, shared space that allowed for greater co-location and cross-team integration. UVA Heath invested in tools to support patient progression in 2022 with the adoption of Qventus to enhance unit-level collaboration in Bed Planning. That same year, consolidation efforts with Emergency Medical Services/Medical Transport Network (EMS/MTN) and focused recruitment strategies reflected our commitment to strengthening the workforce and improving coordination across the region.

In 2023, UVA Community Health completed its EPIC migration, opening the door to new discussions about building a shared capacity operations center that unites UVA Health’s main campus with our three community hospitals.

In 2025, UVA MedCom began the work to upgrade its Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) software to FlightVector — ensuring safe and reliable technology to support our growing EMS and flight volumes for years to come. At the same time, the entire Patient Placement Center entered a stabilization phase following years of rapid growth and transition.

Now, we are in the optimization phase — streamlining processes and leveraging EPIC to drive efficiency, automation, and improved coordination across our health system.

Superior Quality, Patient Safety, and Outcomes

Looking ahead, this trajectory of growth underscores our ongoing mission: expanding the Transfer Center to better support regional facilities, while continuing to evolve Bed Planning to ensure patient load balancing across the system. These efforts will make certain that every patient receives care in the right facility, at the right time, with the right specialized expertise.

In the coming month, we invite you to an open house to see the operations in-action and meet the team in person.