Cites Improvement in Patient Care
DANVILLE, VA -Richard A. Smith, MD, a physician in Danville for 17 years, has been elected Chief of the Medical Staff for 2007.
Smith has worked in the Emergency Department at Danville Regional since l989 and currently is Medical Director. He is a past president of the Danville-Pittsylvania Academy of Medicine.
"I am delighted with the improvements that have been made in the emergency room since last summer," said Smith. "The situation here has turned around significantly. We have wonderful nurses.
"The average time that patients have to wait to be seen has been reduced almost in half since last summer," he said. "With the average wait time of approximately 3 hours, times in our emergency room are about the same as national and state averages."
Smith also said the entire Medical Center provides quality patient care. "We have excellent outcomes with our surgery and cardiac surgery programs," he says. "I have had surgery at Danville Regional, and I am completely confident in the physicians and nurses at the Medical Center."
Physicians at the Medical Center are board-certified. "The Danville area is fortunate to have most of the medical subspecialties represented on our medical staff," he said, noting that having neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons in a community the size of Danville is unusual.
Smith became interested in emergency medicine because of the excitement and variety it encompasses. "Every day is different," he says. "We practice all types of medicine in the emergency room, and we do not know what to expect when the next patient comes in."
Smith and his wife, Carolyn, have two children. Moira is an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia, and Zachary attends GW High School. Carolyn is a singer and the executive director of the Danville Area Choral Arts Society.
"We enjoy the quality of life in the Danville area and are proud to make this our home," he said.
A native of Northern Virginia, Smith is a graduate of Eastern Virginia Medical School. His residency was at Riverside Hospital in Newport News. He was an emergency room physician at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville before moving to Danville.
