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Official portrait of Chief of Staff

Richard "R.J." Schildhouse MD

Chief of Staff

VA Ann Arbor health care

Phone: 734-845-3400

Dr. Schildhouse currently serves as VAAAHS Chief of Staff.

Dr. Schildhouse completed his medical school training at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2009 and his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Michigan in 2012.  He has previously served as the Section Chief of Hospital Medicine, Associate Chief of Staff for Ambulatory Care and, most recently, Deputy Chief of Staff prior to assuming his current role.  He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and is an Associate Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Michigan.   

Upon graduation in 2012 Dr. Schildhouse was recruited as one of the first VAAAHS hospitalist physicians with the creation of the Blue Medicine service.  He has been involved in and led numerous quality improvement initiatives, actively supporting the VAAAHS Culture of Safety and journey to become a High Reliability Organization.  He is an active member of multiple facility and VISN committees, chairing the facility Clinical Executive Committee.  As Deputy Chief of Staff he led the VAAAHS COVID response, for which he earned the Chair’s Impact Award from the University of Michigan.  He regularly attends and teaches on the medicine resident inpatient service, and has been awarded the Kemp B. Cease Physician of the year award, a top honor for VAAAHS Medicine Service physicians.  His areas of clinical interest and research surround the thoughtful expansion of timely, high-quality clinical care to Veterans through market-based collaboratives with other VA facilities.