HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Tuesday marked a milestone for Bon Secours and Henrico’s St. Mary’s Hospital as the health system broke ground on a $370 million expansion off Bremo Road.
“This tower will allow us to not only modernize facilities,” said Bryan Lee, Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital President. “It will more than double our critical care capacity.”
The 200,000 square foot Critical Care Tower will feature all-private patient rooms, state-of-the-art operating suites, a new and expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), cardiac ICU and neuro ICU to better meet the needs of Richmond’s growing and aging population.
Once the eight-story tower opens in 2028, about 90,000 square feet of existing hospital spaces will be renovated the following year.
“We will expand our NICU from 21 to 31 bassinets. We will provide private rooms for those patients and their families to ensure a private, safe environment,” Lee said.
Bon Secours said the new NICU will include 31 total beds, 17 private rooms, six flexible rooms designed to support multiples, eight open bays for the most critical patients, private family lounge, lactation room, and state-of-the-art family consult room.
NICU expansions at both St. Mary’s and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR) are forcing the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond (RMHC) to expand their offerings to families and answer the growing demand for free housing while loved ones recover in the hospital.
“There's nothing harder than having a child in the hospital,” said RMHC of Richmond CEO Emily Toalson. “It’s a very stressful and scary time for families. We want to provide that place of respite, a safe haven, a place where they can escape the hospital environment.”
The nonprofit is planning a move from their current Monument Avenue location of 45 years to 505 West Leigh Street in Historic Jackson Ward with a goal to break ground next fall.
The 52,000 square-foot $40 million project would add 50 hotel-style bedrooms fit with all the creature comforts, up from the current nine bedrooms offered by the organization.
RMHC already operates sleep rooms and a lounge at St. Mary’s Hospital plus a four-bedroom home at CHoR and a family room at Johnston-Willis Hospital.
Dr. Mark Bladergroen, executive medical director of St Mary's Hospital’s heart and vascular institute, stressed the tower will ensure that no one will face a healthcare crisis alone.
"Our mission, as you all know, is to extend the compassionate ministry of Jesus, and we live by that daily, and we have been living by that for the past 60 years," Lee said.
At the tower groundbreaking, hospital leaders often referred to their beginnings more than 60 years ago as three Catholic sisters from the Congregation Bon Secours arrived in Richmond with a mission of establishing a hospital.
“Gracious and compassionate God. We gather before you today with grateful hearts and hopeful spirits as we break ground on this medical tower,” said Sr. Elaine Davis of Sisters of Bon Secours. “For the doctors, nurses, and staff, grant them strength and skill and the grace to care for others. May this place always reflect the highest calling of medicine. To restore, to comfort, and to preserve the sacred gift of life. In your name we dedicate this ground and this mission of Bon Secours. Amen.”
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
