New hospital could go near the Stafford Regional Airport and the new Interstate 95 interchange.

Date published: 7/22/2005

By JIM HALL and RUTH FINCH

Mary Washington Hospital wants to build a second area hospital--in Stafford County.

Hospital officials have scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. today at the Stafford Administration Center. They declined to comment about the proposal or to provide any details, pending the announcement.

Gary Pash, chairman of the Stafford Board of Supervisors, said yesterday that a new hospital will be a boon for the county.

"Everybody wants good schools, good neighborhoods and good health care close by," he said.

Pash said he does not know exactly where the hospital will go, but he thinks it will be near Stafford Regional Airport and the new Interstate 95 interchange nearing completion at Mountain View Road. Those two improvements are attractive to the hospital, Pash said.

It's not clear how many beds the new hospital will have or what services it will offer.

Mary Washington, founded in Fredericksburg a century ago, will have to obtain permission from the state Health Department to build a hospital. The planning, approval and construction process will take several years.

Fred M. Rankin III, president and chief executive officer of MediCorp Health System, the parent company of the hospital, first proposed the idea of a second campus in 2001. He didn't say then where it would be built.

The current hospital sits on a 95-acre parcel near downtown Fredericksburg. At least half of the available land has been used.

The hospital has expanded almost continuously since it opened in 1993. It added a labor-and-delivery section, chapel, same-day surgery center, parking deck, endoscopy suite and emergency room.

A new cardiac catheterization lab is ready to open, and four new operating rooms are awaiting approval by the state Health Department.

The hospital's most important expansion occurred last year: the $46 million, 94-bed West Tower and new atrium entrance. It was the first expansion of bed space in more than 30 years, and pushed capacity to 412 beds.

The hospital's expansion is powered by the region's continued growth. Fredericksburg and the five adjacent counties added 600 new residents a month between 1990 and 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Rapid growth has continued since then.

The region has about 260,000 people now and could reach 300,000 people by the time a new hospital opens.

The size and prosperity of the area has already attracted a national hospital chain, HealthSouth Corp. The Alabama-based company has received permission from the state to build a specialty hospital, a 40-bed rehabilitation facility, in Fredericksburg. Mary Washington has challenged HealthSouth's permit in Fredericksburg Circuit Court. The case will be decided later this year.

To reach JIM HALL: 540/374-5433 jhall@freelancestar.com

Read more stories about Fredericksburg
Date published: 7/22/2005