VCU Health Sciences

Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, VCU
CEO, VCU Health System

Dr. Retchin is Senior Vice President for Health Sciences of Virginia Commonwealth University and Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. As Senior Vice President of Health Sciences for VCU, he has responsibility for five health science schools: Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Health. The five schools have a total enrollment of more than 4,400 undergraduate, professional and graduate students. As CEO of the VCU Health System, he directs MCV Hospitals, a teaching hospital of 865 licensed beds with more than 650 post-graduate trainees in all medical and surgical specialties; the faculty practice plan, MCV Physicians, which includes approximately 650 faculty physicians; and a provider-sponsored Medicaid Health Maintenance Organization, Virginia Premier Health Plan, with about 150,000 members statewide.

Educational background

Dr. Retchin received his undergraduate, medical and public health degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Service Award by the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Retchin is a practicing, board certified Internist, with added qualifications in Geriatric Medicine. He is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the Medical Society of Virginia, the American College of Physicians, and AcademyHealth. Dr. Retchin was elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1985.

Professional background

Dr. Retchin is considered a national expert in health policy and health care delivery and has special expertise regarding the Medicare program. He has had appointments on numerous national panels related to managed care, the costs of care and consumer surveys regarding health care for Medicare beneficiaries. Among others, he was one of the original technical advisors for Medicare's Consumer Assessment of Health Plans' study. Dr. Retchin is regarded as a national expert on the role of the safety net in health services delivery and testified before Congress on the matter in November 2007. Among his public service appointments, Dr. Retchin is currently Chairman of the Advisory Panel on Health Care of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He was also appointed by U.S. Secretary Mike Leavitt, of Health and Human Services, to serve as one of 17 members of the Council on Graduate Medical Education, the body that advises the Secretary and Congress on issues related to graduate medical education and was the Co-Chair of the Working Group to author the Council's 20th Report on the primary care workforce. He has also served on the Board of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association and the Board of Directors for the Association of Academic Health Centers. In 2007, Dr. Retchin served, by gubernatorial appointment, on Virginia's Health Reform Commission, where he chaired the Access to Care Work Group, one of five Work Groups for the Commission. In 2010 he was appointed Vice Chairman, of the 15-member National Health Care Workforce Commission by the U.S. Comptroller General, Gene Dodaro.

Dr. Retchin has published approximately 90 articles, monographs, books and book chapters on the costs, quality, and outcomes of care. His research on alternative financing methodologies and reform of the Medicare program was well cited by the 1996 Institute of Medicine's Committee on Choice and Managed Care. He has also written on workforce issues, including inter-professional models of care and challenges related to the supply of primary care physicians.

View CV >