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Centra Health Seeks to Add Acute-Care Hospital at Virginia Baptist

Posted on: Thursday, 7 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 8--LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Centra Health has submitted an application to build a specialized "hospital within a hospital" at Virginia Baptist Hospital on Rivermont Avenue in Lynchburg.

The $4 million project would create a 36-bed, long-term acute care hospital in Virginia Baptist, with construction beginning in January 2006.

According to a letter of intent to seek a Certificate of Public Need filed by Centra with the Health Planning Agency of Southwest Virginia, the proposed hospital would meet Medicare reimbursement requirements that it operate as a separate corporation under a separate board of directors, with its own chief executive officer, chief medical officer and medical staff.

The patients would be those needing acute care, as opposed to nursing home care, said Tom Jividen, Centra Health senior vice president.

The minimum stay would be 25 days, said Jividen, and would include patients needing ventilator breathing assistance for the short term "with a good prospect of coming off at some point" and those with major complications after surgery.

"It's not intensive care, but acute care over a long period of time," said Jividen. "We expect these people to get better and go home."

The state has several similar hospitals, said Jividen, but none west of Hampton.

"There aren't many in Virginia because of the complexity," said Jividen. "They require a very complex organizational structure. It is essentially a hospital within a hospital, and most places haven't wanted to get into that."

Centra has a longstanding commitment to long-term care, said Jividen, and the specialty hospital fits in with its services. Centra services for seniors include three nursing homes -- Guggenheimer Nursing Home, The Summit Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lynchburg and Fairmont Crossing Health and Rehabilitation Center in Amherst.

A significant portion of the cost of developing the extended-stay hospital would come from equipping it with ventilators and specialized advanced technology hospital beds, he said.

The hospital would be on the fifth floor of the Virginia Baptist's Krise Building and include about 16 beds in the Mundy building, said Jividen.

The space on Mundy would become available when the present oncology unit moves to the new patient tower under construction at Lynchburg General Hospital on Tate Springs Road.

The fifth-floor Krise area is currently being used as office space, but was once used for acute rehabilitation, so it was designed as a patient unit, said Jividen.

"When it was converted to offices, we left the rooms intact," he said.

Centra Health's David Adams, vice president of senior services and rehabilitation services, submitted the letter of intent May 31 to the Health Planning Agency of Southwest Virginia. The application for the Certificate of Public need was filed on June 30.

No date has been released for a public hearing in Lynchburg, part of the COPN process. The certificate is issued or denied by the state health commissioner.

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Source: The News & Advance

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