GOOCHLAND, Va. — A joint venture between two of the region’s largest healthcare systems has found its preferred location for a planned rehabilitation hospital.
Sheltering Arms Hospital and VCU Health announced Tuesday plans to build a 114-bed inpatient rehab facility on about 25 acres in The Notch section of the West Creek Medical Park near the intersection of Route 288 and West Broad Street in Goochland County.
The new hospital – dubbed Sheltering Arms Rehab Institute – is set to combine physical rehabilitative inpatient care for people who have sustained a stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury or similar illnesses and injuries, said Mary Zweifel, Sheltering Arms interim president and CEO. The hospital will also support a number of its recreational therapy and fitness programs.
VCU Health and Sheltering Arms entered into a joint venture agreement in May to build a rehabilitation hospital somewhere in the region. However, at the time, both systems were mulling where to place the facility.
With the Goochland site in mind, both VCU and Sheltering Arms submitted a letter of intent in September to begin the process of applying for a certificate of public need, a state designation needed for all new healthcare facilities.
The health systems will submit their final application for the proposed hospital on Oct. 31, Zweifel said. State health officials could render a decision on the certificate of need sometime during the summer of 2017.
If VCU and Sheltering Arms’ application is approved, the joint venture would purchase the 25-acre property, which Zweifel said would give the facility ample room for growth.
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