A healthy setting for healthcare innovators and providers
Winchester, Virginia has a long and rich history of healthcare innovation, and our city continues to serve a center for care for residents in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, as well as West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle and Western Maryland. The hub of our healthcare reputation is Valley Health Winchester Medical Center, a 445-bed regional referral center that has served our city for well over a century and that is currently our region’s largest employer.
Valley Health offers a broad spectrum of diagnostic, medical, surgical, and rehabilitative care, is a magnet-designated facility, a Level II Trauma Center, a Level IV Epilepsy Center, an Advanced Primary Stroke Center, and a Chest Pain Center. Its size and clinical reputation serve as an anchor that’s ideal for specialty clinics, medical practices, laboratories, research facilities, and pharmaceutical concerns.
Healthcare providers can draw upon a workforce with extensive and varied healthcare skills, along with exceptional healthcare training programs that begin in our region’s K-12 schools and continue through postsecondary providers and professional programs. For example, John Handley High School is home to two healthcare-based career and technical education (CTE) programs that operate in partnership with Valley Health and Laurel Ridge Community College. The nursing program, which has a 100 percent pass rate, graduates students as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) who are immediately employable. There is also a phlebotomy program, with the school serving as a testing site for the Phlebotomy Technician Certification (CPT).
Shenandoah University is home to the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy, which confers a PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) and degrees in pharmacogenomics, precision medicine, and health informatics. The University’s School of Health Professions has undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing, including a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). It also offers postgraduate certificates in specialties including public health, physical therapy, occupational therapy, anatomy and physiology, and emergency medical services (EMT). Labs at the University give students hand-on experience with state-of-the-art instrumentation for procedures including HPLC, automatic DNA isolation, and real-time PCR for pharmacogenetic analyses. Shenandoah University partners with global personalized health leader Inova to develop programs that meet the changing needs of healthcare.
Laurel Ridge Community College partners with Valley Health to offer a wide variety of in-demand medical degrees and certificates, including Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and Registered Nurse (RN) programs. Other options include an associate degree in Health Information Management, and programs for nursing assistants, hospital facility coding, medical administrative assistant/transcription, medical billing/coding, and medical office administration. On-campus labs prepare students for real-world work using medical simulation mannequins and settings such as patient rooms and an operating theater.