Buffalo VA Medical Center
This 199-bed, 1.4 million-square-foot facility provides medical, surgical, mental health, long-term and outpatient care.
The VA Western New York Healthcare System provides care to more than 44,000 veterans annually. Although patients hail primarily from the westernmost eight counties of Upstate New York, the hospital serves as the inpatient specialty care referral site for all veterans west of Syracuse.
Patients present with a wide range of disease states, encompassing one of the highest case severity indexes within the Veterans Health Affairs system.
The Buffalo VA Medical Center is the main referral center for area veterans seeking cardiac surgery, cardiology care and comprehensive cancer care.
It is one of only 12 VA medical centers nationwide conducting a trial of real-time, Internet-based electronic medical records exchanges with private sector hospitals, including all UB medical school rotation sites.
Training
During your first year, you will spend up to one month of your neurology rotation, up to four months of your primary care rotation and up to three months of your inpatient psychiatry rotation at this site.
During your second year, you will do up to three months of another inpatient psychiatry rotation here; in your third year, you may do part of your 12-month outpatient rotation at this site as well.
During your fourth year, you may finish required rotations here, including up to a month in neurology. You also may take electives at this site.
Patient diagnoses include acute and chronic illnesses of all types. Conditions common to this population include psychotic and mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. The hospital’s neurology service admits patients with a wide variety of conditions, including stroke and dementia.
Faculty and Staff
- two interdisciplinary teams
- each team headed by a full-time psychiatrist with primary responsibility for the inpatient unit