Sentara boosts Halifax hospital investment to $107M

Last year, Sentara Health unveiled plans to invest $70 million to replace the aging Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston with a new acute care hospital. On Tuesday, the health care system announced the investment will be closer to $107 million.

“It’s just part of the evolution of the process,” Brian Zwoyer, president of Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital, said of increasing costs. “So, you get into something and you earmark dollars for what you think your cost is going to be, and then as you’re designing and making sure that you have all the right pieces and parts in the project, and then you come up against timing, the shift in construction costs and and all of that. It’s just really been an evolution of economy and cost and time.”

The current hospital was built in 1953 and offers 192 beds. Some days the hospital has 36 patients and other days there are 17, according to Zwoyer.

“Seventy years ago, even 20 years ago … there was a fair amount of industry here,” Zwoyer said. “And so there’s been an out-migration of population. Those businesses have left, and so, what you have is a much smaller community.”

Accordingly, the new hospital also will be smaller, providing 42 to 45 beds, according to Zwoyer.

Scheduled to be completed in summer 2026, the new facility is slated to be 100,000 square feet and is being built so that its footprint can be expanded as needed. “So, for example, if we needed to expand our surgical suites out a little bit, we have space adjacent to the building,” Zwoyer said.

The new hospital will be built behind the current hospital, where the now-closed Fuller Roberts Clinic sits. The facility will offer general surgical services, intensive care, inpatient treatment, observation beds, an emergency department, a catheterization lab, operating rooms, a procedural room, a dialysis suite, imaging services, a laboratory, pathology, pharmacy, rehabilitation, respiratory therapy and a helipad, according to a news release.

Currently, helicopters used for transporting patients “land in the local cemetery,” about two miles from the hospital, according to Zwoyer,

Each patient room will have a window for natural sunlight, a private bathroom and furniture to allow guests to spend the night comfortably.

In recent months, clinicians have practiced treating patients in mock patient rooms to see whether plans for the new rooms will be adequate.

“We have our clinicians come through and say, ‘Does this meet your needs? Do we have all of the O2 receptacles in the right place? Are the outlets at the right size?’ And, literally down to the paper towel holders: ‘Are they in the right place?’ Nobody is better to tell us where we need to have ergonomic design than our clinicians and our staff.”

Since 2010, 167 hospitals have closed or converted to a model that doesn’t offer inpatient care in rural communities, according to a 2024 report from Massachusetts-based consulting firm Chartis. An additional 418 rural hospitals are vulnerable to closing, the report stated.

“We’re dedicated to be here and support the community,” Zwoyer said.

In May 2023, Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital announced plans to phase out obstetric services within the year due to “a significant decreased in births due to changing demographics, aging populations and a national declining birth rate.” The new hospital doesn’t plan to reopen birthing services “at this time,” according to Zwoyer.

There are several hospitals between 45 minutes and an hour away, and patients are traveling to those to deliver babies, Zwoyer said,

Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals dropped OB services, according to Chartis.

In 2015, the former Halifax Regional Health System added Sentara to its name in recognition of its merger with Norfolk-based Sentara in 2013.

With 30,000 employees, Sentara has 11 hospitals in Virginia and one in northeastern North Carolina.