Bon Secours will close DePaul hospital building in April
Citing extremely low patient volume and empty beds, Bon Secours Mercy Health will close DePaul Medical Center, a hospital with a history extending over 160 years in Norfolk, by April.
The Catholic-based hospital system made an announcement in a news release Tuesday, a decision that has been rumored could be coming for at least two years, as competing hospitals in the surrounding area have grown and Bon Secours has conducted layoffs.
Bon Secours intends to move the acute care and emergency medicine services that were at DePaul to Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth. Some of the hospital’s affiliated medical practices and health care services will remain near the hospital or in the “greater Norfolk” area, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Emma Swann, a Bon Secours spokeswoman, would not call the announcement a closure, preferring instead the term “consolidation.” Some doctors and medical services will keep practicing in offices surrounding the hospital or in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
“It would be misleading and confusing to call it a closure; it is a consolidation and discontinuation of services,” Swann said in an email. “Outpatient, ambulatory, physician and community health services will continue on the DePaul campus and in the greater Norfolk Community.”
DePaul was seeing 20 to 30 patients a day, according to Bon Secours, far below its capacity, even during the coronavirus pandemic. Officials said COVID-19 had “little significant increase” on their volume.
All hospital outpatient departments of DePaul will become departments of Maryview by April 1.
Swann said the following services will continue: Amelia Medical Associates, Bon Secours Ghent Station Medical Associates, Bon Secours Medical Associates, Bon Secours Surgical Specialists, Cardiology Specialists, DePaul Medical Associates, East Beach Medical Associates, Harness Health Pharmacy – DePaul Atrium, Medical Oncology, Outpatient Infusion Center, Radiation Oncology Services and Women’s Imaging Center at DePaul.
“Robust efforts have been taken over the years to help sustain acute and emergency hospital operations at the facility,” Bon Secours said in a statement. “While these efforts offered temporary benefit, they were not enough to sustain acute and emergency care in an environment of significant decline.”
Swann declined to answer several questions about the decision, including whether it would involve layoffs and if the building was for sale.
“We will share more information as we are able,” she said.
The hospital system said it will “work with patients and collaborate with community providers” to ensure people don’t lose medical care during the transition.
DePaul was founded in 1855 as the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul, the first hospital in Norfolk for civilians, according to The Virginian-Pilot archives.
Bon Secours took over ownership of the hospital from the Daughters of Charity in 1996. Bon Secours merged with Mercy Health in 2018 to form the fifth-largest Catholic hospital chain in the country.
Over the past year, Bon Secours has indicated it wanted to shift resources from its underused Norfolk hospital to one planned for Suffolk, jockeying for position in the western part of the region.
The hospital system also purchased Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg, Southampton Memorial Hospital in Franklin, and Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center in Emporia in 2019.
Meanwhile, its hospitals in the urban parts of South Hampton Roads have declined. Maryview used to have a 14-bed birthing unit, but it closed in summer 2019. Then, the departure of a large obstetric group from DePaul to Sentara Leigh Hospital led to the closure of DePaul’s labor and delivery unit.
DePaul patients may request copies of their medical records by filling out a release form, at https://www.bonsecours.com/patient-resources/request-medical-records, and mailing or faxing it to the appropriate facility.
Elisha Sauers, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com, 757-222-3864