BY JIM HALL
A major expansion of the region's medical services begins next month and will continue for the next year.
The additions mean more options for Fredericksburg-area patients, and could reduce wait times for those in need of urgent and emergency care.
The new facilities also push medical care deeper into the suburbs and away from the city center.
Officials of MediCorp Health System, parent company of Mary Washington Hospital, said Thursday that the company will spend more than $166 million to complete four projects now under way. Most of that money will come from the sale of low-interest bonds.
The projects include a hospital in Stafford County, a free-standing emergency room in Spotsylvania County, a new trauma service at the Fredericksburg hospital and three urgent care clinics throughout the area.
Another hospital, being built by HCA Inc. in Spotsylvania County, also is under way and might open late next year.
"As the community grows, we need to grow," said Walt Kiwall, MediCorp's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Kiwall this week offered a timeline for opening the facilities. The first, an urgent care center, will open next month, and the last, the new emergency center, will open at this time next year.
Planning for the facilities began seven years ago.
"It's all coming into play now," Kiwall said.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
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Mary Washington Hospital will open a Level II trauma center in August or September.
Dr. Lawrence Roberts will lead the service. Roberts has already started treating some trauma patients who arrive at the emergency room on weekdays.
Three other trauma surgeons have been hired to work with him and provide around-the-clock coverage. The service is expected to cost $2.7 million a year.
Local surgeons from a number of specialities will be called in to assist the trauma surgeons.
Local rescue squads also will be asked to revise their protocols. Currently, most trauma patients are taken by helicopter to larger hospitals in Northern Virginia, Charlottesville or Richmond. By fall, many will be treated at Mary Washington.
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Stafford Hospital Center is on time and on budget, Kiwall said. It will open during the first three months of 2009.
The hospital in the Stafford Courthouse area will be financed with industrial revenue bonds and will cost $158 million.
The arrival of another 100 patient beds is a welcome event, Kiwall said.
Mary Washington Hospital, MediCorp's Fredericksburg hospital, was so crowded this winter that patients were doubled up in some rooms. On Thursday the patient census reached 400, unusually high for May. Capacity is 412 beds.
"We know next winter is going to be very difficult here," Kiwall said.
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MediCorp will open the first of three walk-in urgent care centers on June 16.
The clinic will be on Plank Road in Spotsylvania County in the Harrison Crossing shopping center. A second clinic will open at the end of the year in front of the Giant food store on White Oak Road in southern Stafford County. The third one will open early in 2009 beside the new Target store on Warrenton Road in Stafford.
The centers will be operated by NextCare Urgent Care, an Arizona-based company with 28 centers in four states.
Each will be staffed by a doctor and will feature imaging and lab facilities and a pharmacy. Each clinic will cost about $600,000 to build.
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A new free-standing emergency room, called MediPlex, is under construction beside Medical Imaging of Lee's Hill, near Four-Mile Fork in Spotsylvania.
The center will begin service between April and July of next year. It will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and treat ambulance patients and walk-ins.
The center will have 11 beds, along with radiology and lab capability. It will cost $3.1 million.
It will treat patients with lesser injuries and illnesses. Sicker patients will be moved to Mary Washington Hospital.
Officials expect MediPlex to treat about 14,000 people the first year. They hope that MediPlex and the new Stafford hospital will relieve pressure on the emergency department at Mary Washington.
Mary Washington's ER is on track to treat 114,000 patients this year.
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