Faculty Profile: Clint Merritt

Clint Merritt, MD, Medical Director of GMGPC’s Hospital Medicine program

Clint Merritt Joins UVA as Medical Director for the Hospital Medicine Program

Clint Merritt returned to the University of Virginia in April 2014, joining the Division of General Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Care as medical director for its Hospital Medicine program. Clint did his Internal Medicine residency and served as chief resident at UVA from 2000-2004; during that time, he became one of the most beloved and respected IM residents of the last decade. He received the Anne Brodie Award for best primary care resident, and the W. Leroy Dunn Award in recognition of his medical skills, kindness, and concern for the well-being of others. He also received the IM Residents Teaching Award during his Chief Resident year.

Since Clint left UVA in 2004, he has practiced Hospital Medicine at Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville, Virginia, serving as director of the program, which has 18 providers, for the last two years. He has also served as vice chair of Augusta’s Department of Medicine, chair of the Quality and Patient Safety committee, and president-elect of the medical staff. At his core, though, Clint Merritt is an educator. He has a masters degree in education, and taught science in Albemarle County Public Schools for six years, prior to entering medical school. And he is married to a teacher: his wife Eileen is an assistant professor at UVA’s Curry School of Education. Now that he’s back at UVA as a faculty member, Clint is excited about the opportunity to immerse himself in the education of medical students and residents.

He assumes the role of medical director for the Hospitalist Program during a period of rapid growth that will see its ranks swell to 20 providers by September 2014. The hospitalist group provides an expanding array of services, including staffing its own “private” service on a 24/7 basis, leading the Hospital Medicine firm (one of the four General Medicine teaching teams), running the General Medicine Consult Service and Preoperative Clinic, initiating a formal Orthopedic Co-management Program, and continuing to develop the capacity of the Transitional Care Hospital. The hospitalist team has also been an integral part of the new UVA Transfer Center, and will continue to expand their reach as educators in both the undergraduate and graduate medical education programs.