Sentara Norfolk General Hospital will invest $199 million in a five-year expansion

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital said Monday that it is launching a $199 million, five-year expansion and modernization project.

Its parent company, Sentara Healthcare, said the goal is to bring facilities up to modern standards and to enhance the 525-bed hospital’s reputation as a mid-Atlantic referral center.

“We are proud to provide world-class care, but our patients and clinicians deserve more modern facilities,” Kurt Hofelich, president of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, said in a statement.  “We are investing in the future to improve the patient experience, prepare for new technologies and bolster our position as a mid-Atlantic referral center.”

The project will add three floors each to two existing wings, expand the emergency department, and modernize and expand 18 operating rooms, from an average of 400 square feet to 600 square feet.

Also, the hospital’s 48-bed, ward-style nursery will be replaced with a modern unit. The hospital’s Special Care Nursery provides almost 150,000 patient days annually for premature, drug-addicted and other high-risk newborns.

Other planned improvements include:
·         Three floors added to Kaufman wing (housing new labor and delivery and post-partum rooms).
·         Three floors added to River Pavilion wing. (Top two floors to house 54 consolidated ICU beds.)

HDR Architects designed the project. Whiting-Turner is the primary contractor.

Construction is scheduled to begin in March, with a projected completion date in 2020.  The work is expected to affect traffic flow on the campus, which accommodates up to 18,000 cars, trucks, buses and ambulances per day.

Sentara Norfolk General is home to Hampton Roads’ only Level I trauma center and is the primary teaching hospital for Eastern Virginia Medical School.

According to the hospital, patients from 28 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany and other countries have traveled to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in recent years for cardiac, cancer, neurology and urology care. In 2013 and 2014, Sentara was ranked the No.1 hospital in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report.

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital also includes the region’s only organ transplant program for hearts, kidneys and pancreas.

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital includes several connected buildings of varying ages, ranging from a service wing built in the 1950s to Sentara Heart Hospital, which opened in 2006.