Carilion, Select Medical to build $112M Roanoke rehab hospital

Roanoke-based health system Carilion Clinic is planning a joint venture with Pennsylvania-based Select Medical to build and operate a new 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Ninth Street in southeast Roanoke, according to a Thursday announcement.

Select Medical, a provider of critical illness recovery hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and outpatient rehab centers, will serve as the majority owner and manager of Carilion Rehabilitation Hospital.

According to a Certificate of Public Need application submitted by Carilion to the Virginia Department of Health, capital costs for the facility are anticipated to be $112.2 million. In July 2025, a VDH adjudication officer approved Carilion’s application for the 50-bed facility, as required by state law.

Construction is scheduled to begin this spring, with the facility expected to open in the spring or summer of 2028, according to the news release. When the new hospital opens, Carilion will stop operating its existing 34-bed acute rehabilitation unit at Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital.

According to the VDH adjudication officer’s recommendations, the Division of Certificate of Public Need recommended a 34-bed facility to replace the current unit, noting that the community hospital space is “aged, and the small patient rooms constrain services,” but the division recommended against the addition of 16 beds. Ultimately the adjudication officer approved 50 beds total, calling Carilion’s proposal “feasible in the short and long term” and noting that aging of the region’s population will require more beds in the future.

The officer’s recommendation also notes that LewisGale Medical Center, which operates the only other medical rehabilitation facility in the region, opposes the project, but Carilion’s plans did receive community support.

“This new hospital is an investment in strengthening and growing physical rehabilitation services in our region, and it’s made possible through the skill, dedication and compassion that our inpatient rehabilitation team brings to our patients every day,” Mike Abbott, president of Carilion Medical Center, said in a news release. “We’re grateful for everything our team has shared with us about the best ways for us to elevate patient care and look forward to Select Medical’s resources, knowledge and expertise boosting the care we provide to our community and helping us serve even more patients who need rehabilitative care.”

“Together, we are committed to delivering best-in-class patient care and outcomes that rebuild function, mobility and independence following serious illness or injury such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions,” Select Medical CEO Tom Mullin said in a news release.

Carilion has a history of partnering with other entities. In 2010, for instance, Carilion joined forces with Virginia Tech to welcome the charter class of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. In 2024, the health system announced the selection of Ohio-based Ensemble Health Partners to oversee revenue cycle operations such as payer coding, billing and customer service.

“The Select Medical joint venture is unique as it relates to the capital expansion associated with the new hospital being built, but it builds on our strong record of similarly unique, innovative partnerships that support our mission to serve our patients and communities,” Pete Larkin, a spokesperson for Carilion, wrote in an email Friday.

In addition to the rehab unit, Community Hospital, which opened in 1967, offers a wound healing center and provides endoscopy services, outpatient surgery, Carilion Children’s dental care and an occupational medicine practice, according to the Carilion website. Additionally, urogynecology and maternal-fetal medicine practices are located there.

Hannah Curtis, director of communications at Carilion, wrote in an email Friday that the health system is “working through details on how that space will be used,” once Carilion Rehabilitation Hospital opens.

As of March 31, Select Medical operated 103 critical illness recovery hospitals in 28 states, 41 rehabilitation hospitals in 15 states and 1,912 outpatient rehabilitation clinics in 37 states and Washington, D.C.

In Virginia, Select Medical operates Riverside Rehabilitation Hospital in Yorktown in partnership with Riverside Health System. In 2023, Inova opened its 32-bed Specialty Hospital in Alexandria in partnership with Select Medical.

Carilion is a nonprofit healthcare organization that serves nearly 1 million Virginians and West Virginians through hospitals, outpatient specialty centers and physician practices.