Virginia Beach, Va. – December 2, 2008 – Bon Secours Virginia and Sentara Healthcare have agreed to collaborate in developing Sentara Princess Anne Hospital and hospital related services on their respective outpatient campuses in Virginia Beach. Sentara is pursuing approval to increase the 120 beds previously approved and will now revise its pending Certificate of Public Need application to reflect the new proposal for a single 200-bed joint ventured facility on the Sentara Princess Anne Health Campus, using inpatient beds relocated from Sentara Bayside Hospital and Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center.
“By collaborating, we are able to jointly provide inpatient care to southern Virginia Beach residents in a more cost effective and timely manner” says Michael Kerner, CEO of Bon Secours Hampton Roads. “We are putting aside a long and costly regulatory process in favor of collaborating on our shared not-for-profit mission to meet the medical needs of our community.”
“This combined hospital is an efficient use of resources that allows us both to focus more attention on health care and avoid the uncertainty, expense and delay of a continued regulatory process,” says Howard Kern, president and chief operating officer of Sentara Healthcare. “Also, a 200-bed hospital should be large enough to meet current community need.”
In March of 2008, the Deputy State Health Commissioner approved a 120-bed Sentara Princess Anne Hospital and denied Bon Secours’ application for a 90-bed hospital on their health campus nearby. Ground was broken on Sentara Princess Anne Hospital in June with a projected opening date in late 2010. Both COPN decisions currently are on appeal in court.
“This collaborative approach will help both our companies serve the community sooner and better,” says Michael Kerner of Bon Secours.
“This is a pragmatic effort to help us both fulfill our not-for-profit missions,” says Michael Gentry, corporate vice president for Sentara’s southside hospitals. “At the end of the day, the community wins.”
Both Bon Secours and Sentara are not-for-profit health systems that provide significant charity care and community benefit.
A new not-for-profit joint venture between Bon Secours Virginia and Sentara Healthcare would build and operate Sentara Princess Anne Hospital. An advisory panel with members from each institution would provide oversight of quality and safety, the hospital’s not-for-profit mission and its dedication to ethical standards.
If approved by the State Health Commissioner, the 200-bed complement would include 158 inpatient beds relocated from Sentara Bayside Hospital in Virginia Beach and 42 inpatient beds relocated from Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center in Norfolk.
“The current state of the economy was partly responsible for moving us in this direction,” says Sentara’s Michael Gentry. “We can do more good working together in Virginia Beach than litigating COPN applications.”
“This arrangement serves our practical needs as well as the community’s need for a new hospital to serve southern Virginia Beach,” says Michael Kerner of Bon Secours. “We believe this is a great achievement.”
Hospital related services on outpatient campuses also part of joint venture arrangement
The proposed joint venture includes Sentara Princess Anne Hospital and some ancillary services on two outpatient campuses, which are 3.4 miles apart. They are the Sentara Princess Anne Health Campus at Princess Anne Road and Concert Drive and the Bon Secours Health Campus just off South Plaza Trail.
Ancillary Services include diagnostic imaging, and other hospital related outpatient services.
Operating independently from the hospital joint venture would be the two companies’ ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and the comprehensive cancer center on the Sentara Princess Anne campus, which is operated by a separate partnership between Sentara and Virginia Oncology Associates.
In addition, Sentara will continue with plans to develop independent outpatient services on the Sentara Bayside campus after Sentara Princess Anne Hospital opens.
Precedent exists for Catholic, non-sectarian hospital ventures
The proposed Princess Anne Hospital arrangement is new ground for Sentara Healthcare but not for Bon Secours Health System. Since 1998, Bon Secours Health System, Carolinas Health System and the Medical Society of South Carolina have operated a joint venture in Charleston, South Carolina as Roper St. Francis Healthcare with three hospitals and a host of integrated services. www.ropersaintfrancis.com
About Bon Secours Virginia
Bon Secours Virginia (BSV), the fourth largest health system in Virginia, is comprised of Bon Secours Richmond and Bon Secours Hampton Roads. BSV includes seven award-winning hospitals; four in Richmond and three in Hampton Roads. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to thousands of Virginians. The not-for-profit Catholic health system employs nearly 11,000 people. Bon Secours Virginia hospitals offer a full-range of services including cardiac, women’s, children’s, orthopaedics, oncology, neurosciences, surgery.
About Sentara Healthcare
Sentara Healthcare, a premier not-for-profit health care provider in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, is comprised of more than 100 sites of care including 7 acute care hospitals, 5 outpatient campuses, 7 nursing centers, 3 assisted living centers, the 368-member Sentara Medical Group, the Sentara Health Foundation and 15,000 dedicated employees. Sentara also offers a full range of award-winning health plans through its 375,000-mermber Optima Health Plan, home health and hospice services, physical therapy and rehabilitation, mobile diagnostic vans, and ground and air medical transport services, including Nightingale-the Hampton Roads region's hospital-based air ambulance, now in its 26th year. www.sentara.com
Optima Health is a service of Sentara.