Bon Secours Mercy Health plans to build a $77 million short-stay surgical center at one of its campuses in southeast Virginia. The 18-bed inpatient facility will be located at Bon Secours Harbour View in Suffolk, Va. That campus currently offers only outpatient services.
Bon Secours Mercy is transferring licensing for the 18 beds and four operating rooms to Bon Secours Harbour View from Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, which is about 6 miles away in Portsmouth, Va. The bed transfer will leave Bon Secours Maryview with 231 acute care beds.
While Portsmouth has a population of 95,000 and Suffolk, a population of 90,000, Suffolk is expected to grow rapidly. According to a 2017 article in the Suffolk News-Herald, "Suffolk is the only locality in Hampton Roads projected to grow 10 percent or more in each decade between 2000 and 2040." The projections were from the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Both Portsmouth and Suffolk are in the Hampton Roads region. That region is near where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
Bon Secours Mercy expects to break ground on the surgery facility later this year, and construction is expected to take up to 24 months.