|
-
A rendering depicts the hospital and the wetlands nature preserve. |
MediCorp Health System has taken the early lead in the race to build the region's new hospitals.
The company will break ground Tuesday for its Stafford Hospital Center. The building should be visible early next year as it begins to rise from the ground.
"We have 'dozers and trucks and everybody else up there working now. It's a very busy site," said Walt Kiwall, chief operating officer.
MediCorp is building the 100-bed hospital off U.S. 1 near Stafford Courthouse.
HCA Health Services of Virginia plans a similar construction effort for its 126-bed Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center off Interstate 95 at Massaponax.
However, HCA's efforts are not as visible.
"We are working diligently internally on the development of the project," said Mark A. Foust, vice president for marketing.
Foust said he is not sure when HCA will begin site work.
"We're still on schedule as planned to open our doors in 2009," he said.
MediCorp began work on the Stafford hospital this summer, while Dr. Robert Stroube, state health commissioner, was still considering its application. Stroube approved both new hospitals in late August.
"We were confident that the health commissioner would see how busy this community is growing," Kiwall said. "We were confident that we had a pretty good case."
MediCorp's early work included land clearing at the Stafford site. It also has submitted a site plan to Stafford County, started work on the utilities and started talking with the Virginia Department of Transportation about the access lanes and interior roads.
The nonprofit company also found vacant space on the first floor at Mary Washington Hospital to build three full-size patient rooms: a standard room, an intensive-care room and a labor-and-delivery room.
The mock-ups are the same size and contain all the furniture and equipment that the new rooms in Stafford will have. Doctors, nurses and other staff members have been testing the designs.
"We wanted to make sure you could get the bed in and out, could get a wheelchair in and out of the bathroom," Kiwall said.
MediCorp also has started recruiting physician groups for the new hospital.
"It's a separate licensed facility. It will be a separate medical staff," Kiwall said.
The Stafford hospital will be built on 73 acres just south of the county courthouse. Seven acres of the site have been dedicated for roads, and 10 acres are wetlands.
Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. of Baltimore has been chosen as general contractor. The company built the recent additions at Mary Washington, including the 94-bed west tower.
Kiwall has been named to supervise construction of the Stafford hospital. Kevin Van Renan will take over some of Kiwall's current duties, including day-to-day operations at Mary Washington.
Kiwall said he does not think of himself as being in a race with HCA. Rather, he said, he is motivated by Mary Washington's 6 percent annual growth in the demand for beds.
"We're motivated to beat the need for beds," he said. "We're going to be out of beds. We still believe that. If we don't have something online early in '09, we're going to be in a very significant bed crunch."
To reach JIM HALL:
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
