With a ceremonial groundbreaking complete for the new Riverside Smithfield Hospital (RSH), project leaders are planning for the start of extensive site preparation work and the recruitment of team members.
The project’s general contractor should mobilize for construction in mid- to late-September, depending on when Riverside Health System (RHS) has a necessary county building permit in hand. That will mean setting up 6-foot-tall control fencing and moving in heavy equipment, trailers and other construction resources.
Workers then will spend the next several months leveling the nearly 28-acre site near the intersection of Routes US-258 and VA-10, readying it for the installation of foundations and footings. The hospital is scheduled to open in early 2026.
“It’s a big area, so the initial stages will take quite a long time,” says Russell Parrish, a Registered Architect and Senior Project Manager. “There won’t be a lot for people to see, but it’s all very important work in terms of doing the job right.”
Meanwhile, Riverside will begin advertising for leadership positions at the acute care facility in early 2024 and hopes to have all positions filled by fall 2025, according to Jessica Macalino, RSH President.
“We’re looking at an approximately 1½-year recruitment process,” Macalino relates. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work being done right now, and we’re really excited to get going on a very needed resource for this community.”
RSH will be a 200,000-square-foot, 50-bed inpatient facility that includes a 14-room emergency department, four operating rooms, two procedure rooms, 10 intensive care unit beds and diagnostic imaging and lab services. Clinical teams, EMS workers and local leaders and residents all contributed to the design process.
A Medical Office Building (MOB) on the same campus will offer 39 exam rooms, with offices for multi-specialty outpatient providers, physical therapy services, Human Resources and medical records. Construction on the MOB is slated to begin in the first quarter of next year, with an expected spring 2025 opening.
Riverside received a Certificate of Public Need from the Virginia Department of Health in March 2022, noting that thousands of residents of Isle of Wight and Surry County currently have to travel more than 30 minutes for inpatient care.
One in five individuals in the two growing counties are older than 65, and both localities are federally designated as a Medically Underserved Area. Those tend to have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, untreated mental health concerns and late-stage cancers.
For more information on Riverside Smithfield Hospital and to follow the construction and hiring process, visit riversideonline.com/rsh.