The Virginian-Pilot
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Saying they want to “resize” Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center and continue discussions with the city of Norfolk, Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System officials requested and received a 60-day postponement of a public hearing that had been scheduled for Monday.
“We requested the delay to allow us to complete our work related to resizing our replacement hospital for DePaul,” Lynne Zultanky, spokeswoman for the Catholic health system, said this afternoon.
Bon Secours had been proposing a 64-bed replacement hospital for DePaul, which currently has 238 licensed beds. That proposal had drawn a sharply critical reaction from Norfolk city officials who said it would be too small to serve the community. They had proposed a 134-bed hospital.
“They’re reworking DePaul to right-size it,” said Norfolk City Attorney Bernard Pishko. “We applaud that.”
Both Pishko and Zultanky said they expected an agreement on a new proposal soon.
The public hearing on the proposals had been set for Monday at the Chesapeake Lifestyle Center on the campus of Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, said Michael Byrnes, executive director of the Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency, which organized the hearing. He said that Sentara Healthcare, which also had a project scheduled for the hearing, agreed to the postponement.
This is the second delay Bon Secours has requested. The public hearing on the projects was originally scheduled for July, but Bon Secours then asked for a 30-day postponement, citing the need to update new leaders on the proposals.
Nancy Young, (757) 446-2947,
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