Sentara Leigh Hospital launches Emergency Department expansion

The Sentara Leigh Hospital emergency department (ED) has the highest annual patient volume of 12 Sentara hospitals. The 35-bed department had more than 84,000 patient visits in 2019, far exceeding its designed capacity of 64,000.

With patient volumes continuing to increase, Sentara Leigh Hospital is launching a $14M project to right-size the emergency department to accommodate existing and future volume and better serve our community. We will add 13 new acute care beds and 16 additional ‘vertical care’ chairs in semi-private cubicles for a total of 66 ‘venues of care’ for patients at all levels of need. Patient care will remain excellent around the clock, with a minimum of 47 venues of care available at all times.

Parking for ED walk-in patients will change during the current expansion project. Handicapped spaces directly in front of the hospital will be used for staging construction equipment and supplies. Those spaces will be relocated to regular parking spaces close by. Volunteers will step up their existing golf cart service during peak hours to help motorists using handicapped spaces get to and from the hospital. Signage will direct drivers to the correct lots for the ED and hospital. Sentara Leigh Hospital thanks patients and visitors for their patience during this project, due for completion in mid-2021.

The ED project is the latest chapter in the reinvention of Sentara Leigh Hospital, which opened in 1977. A modernization project begun in 2008 added new ORs and sterile support areas, expanded the ED, enhanced imaging capabilities and culminated in two new five-story patient towers and a new lobby completed in 2016.

The campus master plan includes the Sentara Cancer Center, facing Virginia Beach Boulevard and scheduled to open in May and a new medical office building at the corner of Virginia Beach Boulevard and Kempsville Road.