VCU news

By Erin Lucero and Debra Hill

RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System today will mark an important milestone in the construction of their joint venture, a new surgical specialty center at Stony Point.

Hospital officials and employees will gather with the project’s construction workers for a "topping out" ceremony that celebrates the completion of the main structural frame of the 25,000-square-foot surgical center at 8700 Stony Point Parkway. Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager and Richmond City Manager Calvin D. Jamison will be on hand for the ceremony along with Dr. Eugene P. Trani, president of the VCU Health System, and Dr. Raymond L. Spence Jr., president of the board of directors of Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the final steel beam – signed by all the ceremony’s attendees – will be raised to the roof of the structure. An evergreen tree, signifying good luck, will be attached to and raised along with the steel beam.

"This partnership will offer convenience, valuable service and the area’s best physicians," said Dr. Trani. "It’s a wonderful addition that will allow community and university physicians to provide health-care services at a suburban location."

Scheduled for completion in early summer 2002, the center will contain six operating rooms, four of which will have a primary emphasis on ophthalmology and otolaryngology procedures. First announced in January 2000, the outpatient surgery center will be known as Richmond Eye & Ear/Surgical Specialty Center.

"This state-of-the-art facility will expand the resources available to Central Virginia and beyond," said Dr. Spence. "We have an excellently designed surgical center in a great location that is easily accessible to patients."

A 10-member board of directors has been appointed for the new surgery center, made up of six Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital representatives and four representatives from the VCU Health System. Once the new center is completed, Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital will move its entire operation from its present site at East Marshall Street to the Stony Point location, and the VCU Health System will purchase Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital’s current downtown facility.

Taylor & Parrish Inc., based in Henrico County, is building the surgical center along with an attached 45,000-square foot medical office building. Charlotte-based Odell Associates Inc. serves as architect on the project. Brinkman MDC, a health-care facilities developer based in Charlottesville, spearheads the project development and the leasing of the medical office building. The project’s total cost is about $10 million. The buildings will be ready for occupancy in the early summer.

The specialty surgical center is located in an area that is developing as a major health-care delivery site. The VCU’s Health System’s multi-specialty outpatient center and Massey Cancer Center at Stony Point see more than 100,000 patient visits annually.

Founded in 1952, Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital is Central Virginia’s only eye specialty hospital. Through the use of pacesetting technology, education, research and clinical expertise, the hospital provides specialty care and surgical excellence to the community.