New East Tower at Norfolk’s Sentara Leigh Hospital is complete

The new East Tower at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk is up. The public is invited to a community open house on Sunday, Nov. 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. to tour the new facility before it opens to patients on Nov. 16.

The completion of the tower is part of a three-year, $120 million renovation project. The East Tower is the first of two towers that will replace three, 1970s patient wings. One new amenity people will see during the open house are copper-infused countertops throughout the hospital, designed to help combat hospital-acquired infections. According to the hospital, these materials will constitute the largest real-time clinical trial in the world on the effectiveness of copper-infused surfaces in preventing infections.

“We are positioning Sentara Leigh Hospital for the next 30 years,” Michael V. Gentry, corporate vice president for Sentara hospitals in south Hampton Roads, said in a statement. “We’ve been reinventing the facility over the last several years with major improvements to the emergency department and sterile areas, and the new patient towers reflect our long-term goal for Sentara Leigh to continue serving patients from throughout the region.”

When the East Tower opens to patients, the vacated patient wing will be demolished, and construction on the second tower will begin. Completion of that tower and a new atrium entry pavilion are scheduled in 2016. Sentara Leigh Hospital serves patients from Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and northeastern North Carolina.