This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

EXCLUSIVE: Behind the Scenes at the New Fort Belvoir Community Hospital Part 5

The Oaks Pavilion - Last of five pavilions to be featured on Patch

The final touches are being given to the $1 billion Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. Last week, Patch was given exclusive access to the fifth and final portion of the hospital: The Oaks Pavilion.

The state-of-the-art, 1.3 million-square-foot hospital will open on August 10. It replaces the 54-year-old Dewitt Army Community Hospital and is located on the grounds of Belvoir's former Southern Post golf course.

The transition is part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act, and the new hospital will take over some of the services provided at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  

Find out what's happening in Lortonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"[The hospital] is a significant departure from the capabilities we have at Dewitt today," said Dr. Rick Repeta, director of integration and transition at the hospital. "We typically run about 15-20 inpatient beds on a daily basis. In this hospital we'll have up to 120 available, and we look to run probably 90-100 of those every day."

The structure is broken up into five pavilions: River, Eagle, Sunrise, Meadow and Oaks.

Find out what's happening in Lortonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Oaks Pavilion has seven floors and includes: 

  • Emergency department 
  • Psychiatric unit 
  • Labor/delivery/postpartum unit
  • Operating rooms
  • Cafeteria  
  • Hospital education and training area 

 

"Even though we're opening on August 10, we don't anticipate that we're going to start up everything all at the same time," said Repeta. "We'll be taking everything that we do at Dewitt today and moving that into this building, and then, over the course of the next month or so, really beginning to ramp up all those extra services that will be coming down from Walter Reed."  

Tomorrow, Patch will reveal high-tech inpatient rooms in the Oaks Pavilion. (Spoiler: Patients can modify the temperature of their room with a TV remote)

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?