Carilion Clinic broke ground Tuesday on a freestanding emergency department in Daleville that will also house specialty medical services.
The new facility, adjacent to Carilion Clinic Family Medicine, will dedicate its first floor to emergency care and its second floor to general surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, OB-GYN and imaging services, Paul Davenport, senior vice president for ambulatory operations at Carilion, said at the groundbreaking.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
The project, expected to be completed in 2027, will add 40,000 square feet to Carilion’s existing 25,000-square-foot facility. Carilion Children’s, which occupies a space in a nearby strip mall, is also part of the nonprofit health system’s growing presence in southern Botetourt County.
“Emergency healthcare is important at the time of that crisis, but preventative healthcare and follow-up healthcare is just as important,” Davenport said.
Davenport said Carilion wants to keep pace with the development and growth in Daleville, the county’s most populous community. Daleville is an unincorporated census-designated place, meaning it does not have its own municipal government.
The facility will add medical services near Daleville Town Center, where apartment complexes and restaurants have opened in recent years.
Industrial and technology investments are also bringing development to the area. Munters, a Daleville plant that makes heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment for data centers, completed an expansion in September. Construction preparation for a new Google data center started in the county in August.
There’s even an online tool where residents can see the long-term land-use planning, identifying where future growth may be possible.
Carilion’s new facility will be the only full-service hospital emergency room within county borders.
Jacqui Sobieski, executive director of the Botetourt Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview Tuesday that access to healthcare can help attract businesses and support the county’s continued growth.
Businesses make significant investments when deciding whether to open in a community, Sobieski said. Even small-business owners must weigh major personal and financial decisions when choosing where to establish their enterprises.
“Those businesses care a lot about the communities. Their workers are going to live there. Their consumers live there. They [business owners] evaluate that in great detail, and if you’re lacking in something as important as healthcare, it’s going to be difficult to attract businesses,” Sobieski said.
Sobieski also pointed to the needs of the county’s agricultural community. Farmers often operate heavy machinery in remote areas, where an injury could leave them far from emergency care.
A 2019 study published in the Journal of Rural Health found that farmers face an elevated risk of death or disability associated with delays in emergency care. The researchers examined several contributing factors, including distance from emergency services.
Botetourt County also has many retirees who live in remote areas, Sobieski said.
“When you have a life-threatening injury on the farm or for an elderly person, every minute counts,” Sobieski said.
