VCU Health planning its first hospital in Chesterfield

VCU Health plans to file an application with the state seeking approval for a hospital in Chesterfield. (BizSense file)

VCU Health continues to map out a larger presence in Chesterfield with a proposal to build its first hospital in the county.

The health system is seeking regulatory approval to open a 66-bed hospital at 7220 Beach Road near the county’s government complex, according to a letter of intent recently submitted to the state health department.

The facility would also have six operating rooms and a cardiac catheterization lab as well as CT and MRI units, the filing shows.

The hospital would have 42 adult medical-surgical beds, 12 ICU beds, six pediatric beds and six obstetric beds, according to the letter, which also stated that the facility would feature general- and intermediate-level nursery services.

The June 2 letter, signed by health system CEO Marlon Levy, comes as a precursor to an application to the state’s Certificate of Public Need, or COPN, program. In Virginia, hospitals and certain other medical facilities require regulatory approval from the state before they can be established. State Health Commissioner Karen Shelton would have to sign off on the Chesterfield hospital project for it to proceed.

A VCU spokeswoman declined to provide further details of the project, such as anticipated cost or construction timeline, but said the COPN application would be filed with the Virginia Department of Health in the coming weeks.

The parcel described as the future hospital’s site is a 56-acre property near the intersection of Iron Bridge and Beach roads, and borders the upcoming extension of Nash Road. The land is owned by an entity tied to VCU Health, which acquired it as part of a $13.2 million deal earlier this year that included 14 acres at 9818 Iron Bridge Road and several small parcels along Beach Road, according to county land records.

The property slated for the hospital project is adjacent to the 8.5-acre site on Iron Bridge Road where VCU Health last month held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $90 million medical office and surgical facility. The health system bought the medical office building site for $1.5 million earlier this year in a separate transaction from the larger deal.

While it has established several smaller medical facilities in Chesterfield, VCU Health has yet to follow its competitors with a full-on hospital in the county. Its main rivals, HCA and Bon Secours, have one hospital each in the county.

However, HCA may soon have two.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based health system similarly notified the state that it intends to file a COPN application to “establish a general acute care hospital” with 60 beds.

While HCA’s June 2 letter of intent doesn’t state precisely where the project is proposed to be built, a company spokesman said in a prepared statement that the facility would serve patients in Chesterfield.

“This hospital would allow us to deliver services closer to where our patients live and work and provide an additional HCA Virginia access point for the Chesterfield community,” HCA spokesman Wes Hester said in an email.

HCA’s letter states that the facility would feature 54 medical-surgical beds and six ICU beds. There would also be four operating rooms, a CT scanner and an MRI scanner.

Hester didn’t respond to questions about further details on the project, such as its anticipated cost or construction schedule.

HCA’s Chesterfield hospital is Johnston-Willis Hospital. The company early this year also filed a separate COPN application to add 36 surgical beds to its existing Chippenham Hospital on Jahnke Road in South Richmond.

Also in January, Bon Secours filed a COPN application to add 40 beds to its St. Francis Medical Center in western Chesterfield. A VDH official said last week that the approval decisions on the St. Francis and Chippenham Hospital projects were still pending.

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