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Hospital medical team

Read up on the titles and roles of different professionals who provide care for you and your family when you visit an HCA Virginia Health System hospital.

Medical team roles

  • Physicians – Examine patients, take medical histories, prescribe medications and order, perform and interpret diagnostic tests
  • Surgeons – Operate on patients to treat injuries such as broken bones, diseases such as cancerous tumors and deformities such as cleft palate
  • Registered Nurses (RN) – Provide and coordinate patient care, offer guidance and emotional support to patients and families and educate people about health conditions
  • Hospitalists – Board-certified internal medicine physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients
  • Intensivists – Physicians who care for critically ill patients being treated in a hospital intensive care unit
  • Physician Assistants (PA-C) – Practice medicine under the direction of physicians and surgeons; formally trained to examine patients, diagnose injuries and illnesses and provide treatment
  • Anesthesiologists – Specialize as physicians who deliver anesthetics to safely manage consciousness and pain for patients during surgical procedures
  • Radiologists – Physicians who use a variety of advanced imaging technologies to diagnose and/or treat diseases
  • Pathologists – Physicians who examine the body’s cells and tissues at the microscopic level to develop a precise diagnosis of disease
  • Medical Technologists and Technicians – Provide technical assistance to members of the hospital team
  • Medical Therapists (Speech, Occupational, Physical, Respiratory) – Provide therapeutic treatment to patients in a variety of specialties to support healing and health
  • Nurse Practitioner – Advanced-practice nurse with the additional education and training needed to provide diagnoses, treatments and medication prescriptions
  • Pharmacist – Specialized healthcare professional who focuses on the safe and effective use of medications
  • Phlebotomist – Medical technologist who collects samples for lab testing

Hospitalists partner with your primary care physician

Your primary care physician continues to play an important role in caring for you while you’re hospitalized and receives regular updates from the medical team, primarily the hospitalist, regarding your plan of care and your progress.

Even if you’re admitted to the hospital through the emergency room, a hospitalist notifies your physician, confers about your condition and status, and coordinates care with appropriate specialists. When you’re ready to go home, our medical team helps you make the transition back to your primary care physician, providing detailed reports from your visit, including lab results and diagnostic images, and recommendations for follow-up care to ensure you make a full recovery.

How you benefit

  • Our hospital team members employ their special training in family, internal, pulmonary and critical care medicine to provide you the highest level of inpatient care and improved patient results.
  • Our team members—compassionate and knowledgeable professionals—answer your questions and explain inpatient details such as discharge procedures to you and your family.
  • Our experience and sole focus on caring for inpatients leads to faster, more accurate clinical decisions made with a high degree of confidence. This results in better outcomes, shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions.

Learn more about emergency care at HCA Virginia and explore the range of intensive care and surgical services available to you through our hospitals.

Learn more about our intensive care services, as well as emergency care at LewisGale.

Meet our partners in healthcare, the hospitalists of LewisGale Physicians.

Contact us

Use our Consult-A-Nurse® services to find specialists, make an appointment and learn more about our hospital medical teams at HCA Virginia facilities.