In light of the recent global pandemic, health care companies across the region have been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, but they’ve also made headlines for lack of personal protective equipment, local layoffs and drops in yearly revenue.
But that hasn’t stopped some good news coming from Inova Health System, which announced in late May that it is planning to build a new hospital in Springfield, on property it acquired in early 2020 behind its current Inova HealthPlex.
The site was determined after a “comprehensive assessment” of community needs launched over a year ago, but is now being further impacted by the global pandemic and the community’s changes over the past few months.
“COVID-19 hit us hard, but it will not prevent us from moving forward as quickly as possible to expand access to care for the communities we are proud to serve,” said Dr. Stephen Jones, Inova president, in a recent press release.
The proposed hospital still has work to do on developing plans for the overall facility, including its size, bed count and specific programming, but those are expected to be worked out prior to the end of 2020. Further construction and development of the site is projected to take several years.
The site is located on Lewin Drive, neighboring Inova’s current Healthplex that offers outpatient services, laboratory and surgery, sports medicine and physical therapy, as well as a 24/7 emergency room.
According to the press release, Inova operates five hospitals in Northern Virginia, with 1,800 beds, including a network of emergency and urgent care centers (located from Alexandria to Loudoun County) and serves more than 2 million people annually, and employs 18,000 professionals.
For more on local news and how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our region, subscribe to our weekly newsletters.
