MARION, Va. — A new patient is occupying the exam rooms of a Smyth County hospital that hasn’t accepted sick people in years.
The patient’s name is SimMan 3G and he has a lot of issues: He bleeds. He goes into shock. He moans in pain.
SimMan 3G is a high fidelity simulation mannequin and is the centerpiece equipment in a simulation lab for students at the Emory & Henry College School of Health Sciences/Marion campus. The campus is at the site of the old Smyth County Hospital, built in 1965, but closed for four years until 2016.
Through $13.3 million in renovations, the college has not only repurposed an old building to create a learning hub, but is also helping to reinvigorate a Southwest Virginia community.
The goal of the school is to educate young people in a highly interactive and hands-on environment, as well as to provide health care to Southwest Virginia, an area that school officials say lacks health care professionals, said Louise Fincher, dean of Emory & Henry’s School of Health Sciences.
Currently, the school offers graduate-level degrees in occupational and physical therapy and will offer a master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies next spring.
“We’re contributing to the common good,” said Jake Schrum, Emory & Henry’s president. “We’re not only teaching people to do well, but to do good, too.”
