The long-shuttered hospital in Patrick County will not reopen as planned, county officials said Tuesday.
Pioneer Community Hospital of Patrick County closed in 2017, and in mid-2022 it was purchased by Chicago-based Foresight Health. The company said it planned to renovate the building and reopen it as a critical access hospital, which are small facilities that provide limited outpatient and inpatient services.
A news release from Patrick County officials said no reason was given by Foresight for the change of plans. Foresight officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
“We are disappointed that the promises made to Patrick County leaders and citizens by this company will not be fulfilled,” Patrick County Board of Supervisors Chairman Brandon Simmons said in the release.
Foresight officials initially said the facility would reopen by the end of 2022. That date was pushed back several times, and little work was done on the property.
The director of development for the company cited supply chain and personnel issues in January 2023, and said that the company had underestimated the extent of the renovations that were needed. Despite the delay, Foresight’s chief operating officer confirmed that the company planned to move forward.
In July, the Stuart Town Council tabled a rezoning request from Foresight, citing concern over a lack of project updates from the company. Speculation that the hospital would not reopen had already been circulating in the community for months.
“It’s a shame but it really wasn’t a surprise to me at all. I’ve been saying since day one that that was a bit of a boondoggle,” said county supervisor Steve Marshall. “It really just seemed improbable the promises they were making. There was no way they could deliver on what they were promising in that amount of time.”
Immediately after receiving confirmation that Foresight would not continue with its plans for the hospital, a Healthcare Access Committee was formed in Patrick County, according to the release.
Health care access was identified as a top priority need in the region through a 2019 community health needs assessment by the Virginia Department of Health. Currently, patients having an emergency are transported to Martinsville or Mount Airy, North Carolina, and eventually to Roanoke or Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
A 2020 report by Healthy Patrick County, a local advisory board established by the West Piedmont Health District, found that the cost of renovating the hospital and the cost of building a new one would be too high. A feasibility study also found that the traditional hospital model would be unsustainable in the rural community. For now, mobile health care solutions are being used to deliver services into the community.
“Of course it’s very unfortunate. I wish it would have worked out over time, but I wish it had been transparent, too,” Simmons said by phone Friday. “I hate that the public, even us, I hate that everyone was left in the dark. I don’t have any answers moving forward, it’s just my opinion it’s going to be hard to have a true full-sized hospital in Patrick County. I don’t know if it can sustain here.”
Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick County, has pushed for the hospital to reopen. In early 2022, he sponsored a bill at the General Assembly that secured for a future provider the former hospital’s license as an acute care and critical access hospital. The bill passed with unanimous support and was signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“Like many in our community, I am disappointed about the news that Foresight has decided to pull out of their Patrick County facility,” Williams said in a statement Tuesday.
“Luckily, the license remains intact so it’s still a viable facility certified by the state. And no taxpayer dollars went into the project from the Town, County or State; I’m not aware of any Federal grants.
“As a Patrick County resident with elderly grandparents, a family, and a young son in the community, I understand the gravity of this situation and it is concerning to me and my family as well. This is an important issue for our community, and it is one that I will continue to work with local and regional leaders to fight for.”
In 2022, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, presented leaders of the Patrick County Economic Development Authority with a $600,000 check from the Health Resources and Services Administration, meant to fund an additional mobile health care unit.
The presentation was hosted by Foresight Health, and its leadership doubled down on their promise to expand health care access in rural Virginia.
Griffith provided a comment Tuesday on the developments with the hospital project.
“While we are disappointed in the decision, we will continue to work with Patrick County to assist in any way we can,” he said.
State Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, said in a statement Tuesday evening that he was “unfortunately … not surprised” by the announcement.
“From the beginning, I feared that this may be the end result,” he said. “The tragedy of this all is that a community that built this hospital with their own money, is now no further along than when the Pioneer hospital system abandoned us not long ago. But we will not give up until a free standing hospital is back up and running in Patrick County.”
It’s unknown if Foresight has any alternative plans for the property, Stuart Mayor Ray Weiland said Tuesday. He added that the county has not heard from anyone at Foresight for months, despite trying to connect.
“The town is probably going to remove the signs, if they don’t remove them themselves, the town will probably remove the signs that say ‘Opening in 2023,’” Weiland said.
Staff writer Markus Schmidt contributed information to this story.