A local hospital has an expansion in the works.
HCA Virginia plans to build a new unit to treat child and adolescent behavioral health patients at its Tucker Pavilion at Chippenham Hospital.
The $4.5 million ground floor addition will connect to Tucker Pavilion, the Southside hospital’s psychiatric facility. The new unit will add 24 beds.
Construction on the 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot facility at 7101 Jahnke Road will begin in late summer or early fall and is expected to take 12 to 18 months, said Tucker Pavilion chief operating officer Betsy Blair.
The hospital system is working with Stengel-Hill Architecture, a Kentucky firm HCA has worked with in the past. It has not chosen a contractor.
The design will be more child-friendly than a traditional hospital setting, Blair said.
“We felt that population could benefit from a new design,” she said. “A 2014 design is going to be a lot softer and warmer.”
Blair said space is a major issue at mental health facilities in general.
“This project will help us with in-patient capacity, an issue that our community, our state and, albeit, our nation sees,” she said.
In 2011, the facility began tracking bed requests for temporary detention, also called involuntary admissions. It found that it was unable to accommodate 155 people in an average month due to lack of beds, Blair said. Twenty-three percent of those requests were for child or adolescent patients.
Tucker Pavilion, which was built in 1976, has 113 licensed beds.
Its juvenile patients face a variety of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders or bipolar disorders, Blair said.
HCA Virginia operates seven hospitals in the Richmond region, including Johnston-Willis Hospital, Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, Parham Doctors’ Hospital, Retreat Doctors’ Hospital, John Randolph Medical Center, Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and Chippenham Hospital.
Its main competitors in the area are Bon Secours Richmond Health System and VCU Health System.
A local hospital has an expansion in the works.
HCA Virginia plans to build a new unit to treat child and adolescent behavioral health patients at its Tucker Pavilion at Chippenham Hospital.
The $4.5 million ground floor addition will connect to Tucker Pavilion, the Southside hospital’s psychiatric facility. The new unit will add 24 beds.
Construction on the 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot facility at 7101 Jahnke Road will begin in late summer or early fall and is expected to take 12 to 18 months, said Tucker Pavilion chief operating officer Betsy Blair.
The hospital system is working with Stengel-Hill Architecture, a Kentucky firm HCA has worked with in the past. It has not chosen a contractor.
The design will be more child-friendly than a traditional hospital setting, Blair said.
“We felt that population could benefit from a new design,” she said. “A 2014 design is going to be a lot softer and warmer.”
Blair said space is a major issue at mental health facilities in general.
“This project will help us with in-patient capacity, an issue that our community, our state and, albeit, our nation sees,” she said.
In 2011, the facility began tracking bed requests for temporary detention, also called involuntary admissions. It found that it was unable to accommodate 155 people in an average month due to lack of beds, Blair said. Twenty-three percent of those requests were for child or adolescent patients.
Tucker Pavilion, which was built in 1976, has 113 licensed beds.
Its juvenile patients face a variety of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders or bipolar disorders, Blair said.
HCA Virginia operates seven hospitals in the Richmond region, including Johnston-Willis Hospital, Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, Parham Doctors’ Hospital, Retreat Doctors’ Hospital, John Randolph Medical Center, Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and Chippenham Hospital.
Its main competitors in the area are Bon Secours Richmond Health System and VCU Health System.