If you are looking for a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA, Gastroenterology Center of Northern Virginia (GC of NoVA) cares for patients from across Alexandria at two offices north and west of the city. We do not have an office inside Alexandria. What we have is an Arlington office about five and a half miles north, next to VHC Health, and an Annandale office to the west in the Woodburn Medical complex. Alexandria is the one part of our service area where the closer office is Arlington rather than Annandale, and this page explains how to choose between them, what digestive care we provide, and how to schedule.
Where a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA actually practices
Alexandria is the largest of the communities we serve without having an office in it, and it is worth saying that plainly rather than implying otherwise. The city holds about 155,000 residents in just under fifteen square miles of land, which makes it dense, compact, and well supplied with primary care. Specialty gastroenterology practices, though, tend to cluster around the hospital campuses that ring the city rather than inside it. When you search for a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA, you are generally choosing among practices a short drive outside the city line.
Our two offices sit north and west. The Arlington office is roughly five and a half miles from the center of Alexandria, and the Annandale office is closer to eight. That ordering matters, because it reverses the pattern everywhere else in our service area. Patients from Fairfax and Falls Church usually find Annandale closer. Alexandria patients usually do not.
Most Alexandria addresses are not in the City of Alexandria
The most useful thing to understand before you pick an office is that an Alexandria mailing address tells you less about where you are than almost any other address in Northern Virginia. The City of Alexandria is an independent city under Virginia law, with its own government, school division, courts, and tax base, and it is not part of Fairfax County. But the postal service assigns Alexandria addresses well past the city line, across a wide band of southeastern Fairfax County.
The numbers make the point. Of the fourteen ZIP codes that carry an Alexandria mailing address, six are inside the city: 22301, 22302, 22304, 22305, 22311, and 22314. The other eight sit in Fairfax County: 22303, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, 22310, 22312, and 22315. More Alexandria ZIP codes fall outside the city than inside it. Neighborhoods like Kingstowne, Franconia, Belle Haven, Lincolnia, and Mount Vernon all have Alexandria addresses and all sit in Fairfax County.
None of that changes your care. It does change which office is the shorter trip, and it is why the answer below is written for both readings of the word Alexandria. If you are not sure which side of the line you live on, our team can sort it out on the phone in about a minute.
Our Arlington office, the closer of the two for Alexandria patients
For patients inside the city, the nearer of our two locations is Arlington, and this holds for every one of the six city ZIP codes without exception. The office is at 1715 North George Mason Drive, Suite 403, Arlington, VA 22205, adjacent to VHC Health in Zone C, with patient parking in Parking C. The phone number there is (703) 522-7476.
From Del Ray and the neighborhoods along Route 1, Arlington is about six miles. From Old Town it is closer to seven. From the West End near Seminary Road it drops under four. In each case Arlington is the shorter drive by two to three miles, and the approach is a straightforward run north on Quaker Lane, Route 7, or George Mason Drive rather than a highway trip. Our full Arlington gastroenterology office page covers parking, hours, and what a visit there involves.
Being next to a hospital campus is practical rather than decorative. If your evaluation involves lab work or imaging alongside the consultation, having those services on one campus keeps a workup from turning into several separate trips across the river of traffic that is Northern Virginia at five o'clock.
Our Annandale office, and when it is the better trip
Our Annandale office is at 3299 Woodburn Road, Suite 220, Annandale, VA 22003, in the second building of the Woodburn Medical complex, about a block from Inova Fairfax Hospital. You can reach it at (703) 560-6106.
For most Alexandria patients this is the longer trip, but there is one clear exception and it follows a single road. Duke Street runs west out of Alexandria and becomes Little River Turnpike as it crosses into Fairfax County, carrying you toward Annandale without a complicated transition. If you live along that corridor, in the West End around 22304 and 22311, or in the Lincolnia and Kingstowne areas that have Alexandria addresses in Fairfax County, Annandale is either competitive with Arlington or closer outright. Lincolnia sits under five miles from the Annandale office. Kingstowne is closer to Annandale than to Arlington by more than a mile.
Annandale is also the better option in three situations that have nothing to do with distance: when you already commute west and an appointment on that route saves a separate outing, when the Annandale schedule has an opening sooner, or when your other physicians are already at the Inova Fairfax campus. Our Annandale gastroenterology office page has the specifics.
You are not locked into one location. Many patients are seen at whichever office had the sooner opening and follow up at the other, and the physicians are the same group at both. If you would like help deciding, call either office and say which part of Alexandria you are traveling from.
Colon cancer screening for Alexandria adults
Screening is the single most common reason people here look for a gastroenterologist. The American Cancer Society recommends that adults at average risk begin colorectal cancer screening at age 45, and colonoscopy is the only screening test that can find and remove polyps during the same exam.
Alexandria screens near the regional average and below the national goal. In the CDC's PLACES local estimates for 2022, 65.4 percent of adults aged 45 to 75 in the City of Alexandria were up to date with colorectal cancer screening. Arlington County, where many Alexandria patients are seen, came in at 66.7 percent, and Fairfax County, where eight of the fourteen Alexandria ZIP codes actually sit, came in at 63.1 percent. All three fall under the Healthy People 2030 target of 72.8 percent. Read Alexandria's number in reverse and roughly one in three eligible adults in a well insured, well educated city is not current.
The reason this matters is timing rather than alarm. Colon polyps and early colorectal cancer usually produce no symptoms at all, which is the entire argument for screening on a schedule instead of waiting for something to feel wrong. We cover that pattern across the digestive tract in our page on digestive conditions that often have no symptoms, and go deeper on the tissue itself in colon polyps and colorectal cancer.
If you are weighing a colonoscopy against a stool-based test, our comparison of colon cancer screening options in Northern Virginia lays out what each test does and does not do. If a colonoscopy is already on the calendar, our guides to colonoscopy prep, sedation and anesthesia, and what to expect on the day walk through it start to finish, while your colonoscopy results explained covers what the report means afterward. Cost questions are addressed in does insurance cover a colonoscopy.
If you are 45 or older and have never been screened, that is worth a phone call rather than a resolution. Arlington is (703) 522-7476 and Annandale is (703) 560-6106.
Digestive conditions a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA evaluates
Screening is one lane of the practice. The other is symptoms, and what we see from Alexandria is the ordinary range of adult gastroenterology. That includes GERD and acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, diverticulitis and diverticulosis, hemorrhoids, gallstones, gastritis, peptic ulcers and H. pylori, and liver conditions such as fatty liver disease and hepatitis.
Many patients arrive with a symptom rather than a diagnosis, which is often the more useful place to start. Ongoing abdominal pain, blood in the stool, chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea, persistent bloating, and difficulty swallowing each have their own workup, and each is a reason to be seen rather than to wait. Evaluations frequently involve upper endoscopy or colonoscopy, though not every visit leads to a procedure. Less common conditions such as Barrett's esophagus, hiatal hernia, gastroparesis, pancreatitis, and cirrhosis are also evaluated and managed here.
Where a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA performs procedures
When a procedure is recommended, it is done at an affiliated facility rather than in the office. Those facilities are VHC Health, Inova Fairfax Hospital, and Woodburn Endoscopy Center. Which one is used depends on the procedure and on your circumstances, and your physician's office will confirm the location and the preparation instructions with you before the day arrives.
For a patient traveling from Alexandria this is worth planning around, because a procedure day involves a driver and a ride home rather than a solo trip. VHC Health sits on the same campus as our Arlington office, so for most city residents the procedure is no farther than the consultation was. Beyond routine colonoscopy and endoscopy, the practice also performs ERCP, endoscopic ultrasound, capsule endoscopy, hemorrhoid banding, and breath testing for H. pylori and SIBO.
Primary care or a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA
Not every digestive symptom needs a specialist, and your primary care physician is a reasonable first stop for most new ones. The situations that genuinely call for a gastroenterologist tend to be symptoms that persist after a first-line treatment, symptoms that return each time treatment stops, findings that need explanation such as unexplained anemia or abnormal liver enzymes, and anything where the sensible next step is a scope or a biopsy. Screening at age 45 is its own reason and requires no symptom at all. Our page on when to see a gastroenterologist rather than your primary care doctor works through that decision in detail, and unexplained weight loss covers one of the findings that should not wait.
The physicians who see Alexandria patients
Our practice is a group, so choosing a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA means choosing among five physicians rather than one, and Alexandria patients are seen by the same physicians at either office: Gabriel B. Herman, M.D., Pradeep K. Gupta, M.D., Truc T. Trinh, M.D., Diego I. Kuperschmit, M.D., and Rachana Potru, M.D. Each bio covers training, focus areas, and clinical interests, which is worth reading if you have a preference about who you see.
What to bring to a first appointment
A first visit goes more smoothly with a few things in hand: your insurance card and photo identification, a current list of your medications and supplements including anything over the counter, recent lab work or imaging if another physician ordered it, the date and findings of any previous colonoscopy or endoscopy, and a short note on your family history of colorectal cancer, polyps, or liver disease. Family history changes screening timing more often than patients expect, so it is worth asking relatives before the appointment rather than after. Our guide to your first gastroenterologist visit covers what the appointment itself involves.
How to schedule with a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA
To request an appointment, call the office that suits you. Arlington is (703) 522-7476 and Annandale is (703) 560-6106. Both are open Monday through Thursday from 8:30am to 5:00pm and Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm. We accept new patients at both locations, whether your primary care physician referred you or you are reaching out on your own. If you are not certain which office to choose, say which part of Alexandria you are traveling from and our team can point you to the shorter trip. Our page on becoming a new patient explains referrals and intake, and patients elsewhere in the region may want our Falls Church or Fairfax pages instead.
Frequently asked questions about finding a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA
Do you have an office in Alexandria, VA?
We do not have an office inside the City of Alexandria. Patients looking for a gastroenterologist in Alexandria VA are seen at two nearby locations: our Arlington office at 1715 North George Mason Drive, Suite 403, adjacent to VHC Health, and our Annandale office at 3299 Woodburn Road, Suite 220, in the Woodburn Medical complex. Arlington is the closer of the two for every ZIP code inside the city.
Which office is closer to Alexandria?
Arlington, for anyone inside the city line. It sits about five and a half miles north of the center of Alexandria, roughly six miles from Del Ray and seven from Old Town, and it is the shorter trip by two to three miles from every city ZIP code. Annandale becomes competitive or closer if you are along the Duke Street corridor in the West End, or in the Lincolnia and Kingstowne areas that carry Alexandria addresses in Fairfax County. Call (703) 522-7476 for Arlington or (703) 560-6106 for Annandale.
My mailing address says Alexandria but I live in Fairfax County. Does that change anything?
Not for your care, though it often changes which office is convenient. Of the fourteen ZIP codes with Alexandria mailing addresses, six are in the independent City of Alexandria and eight are in Fairfax County, so more Alexandria addresses sit outside the city than inside it. Patients from Kingstowne, Franconia, Belle Haven, Lincolnia, and Mount Vernon are welcome at either office. Tell our team the cross streets you are coming from and we can identify the shorter trip.
At what age should Alexandria adults start colon cancer screening?
The American Cancer Society recommends that adults at average risk begin colorectal cancer screening at age 45. People with a family history of colorectal cancer or advanced polyps, a personal history of polyps, or inflammatory bowel disease may need to start earlier or repeat screening more often. That determination is individual, and it is one of the things a first appointment is for.
Where would my colonoscopy or endoscopy be performed?
Procedures are performed at facilities affiliated with the practice rather than in the office. These are VHC Health, Inova Fairfax Hospital, and Woodburn Endoscopy Center. The facility depends on the procedure and your circumstances, and our team will confirm the location and the preparation instructions with you in advance. For most Alexandria patients, VHC Health is on the same campus as the Arlington office, so the procedure day is not a longer trip than the consultation was. Plan on a driver and a ride home.
Are Alexandria residents up to date on colon cancer screening?
Close to the regional average and short of the national goal. The CDC's PLACES local estimates for 2022 put colorectal cancer screening among adults aged 45 to 75 at 65.4 percent in the City of Alexandria, compared with 66.7 percent in Arlington County and 63.1 percent in Fairfax County. All three fall below the Healthy People 2030 target of 72.8 percent, which means roughly one in three eligible adults locally is not current.
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. Screening timing, symptom evaluation, and whether a procedure is appropriate all depend on your history, your risk factors, and your examination. Talk with a qualified gastroenterologist about your symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options.
