Virginia lawmakers again delayed a vote Tuesday to advance plans to close Hiram Davis Medical Center, a state-run long-term care and skilled nursing facility in Petersburg.
A majority vote from members of the Joint Commission on Health Care would have sent the closure proposal to the General Assembly’s money committees, which would consider including the plan in the 2027 state budget. The full General Assembly would then make the final decision.
Nine legislators voted to advance the plan while four opposed it. But Virginia law requires a majority vote among both the House and Senate members present for the commission to approve a recommendation for closure.
Three senators voted against advancing the plan: Mamie Locke, D-Newport News; Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth; and David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County. Three senators voted in favor, leaving Senate members tied.
A staff policy analyst told the commission that state law does not address how to handle a split vote. Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington County, later said the proposal could not advance without majority support from both the House and Senate members.
Lawmakers offered little discussion of the proposal Tuesday. Suetterlein suggested that those pushing for the closure might be “short-sighted.”
Favola noted that months of work went into developing a plan that addressed concerns about the facility and its residents.
“This endorsement lays out a lot of conditions related to closure — conditions that this commission spent six months looking into, asking questions of the department, articulating concerns of the patients and their families and acknowledging that there are in fact some substantial structural issues at Hiram Davis that have not been addressed in over 40 years,” Favola said.
The state has considered closing Hiram Davis since 2024, when the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which oversees the facility, determined that its aging infrastructure was at risk of failure. The center needs extensive renovations that the department says cannot safely take place while residents remain in the building.
The center serves Virginians who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. Patients often have multiple serious health problems. Admissions to Hiram Davis are usually permanent placements or special hospitalizations, according to the center’s website.
Members of the commission did not provide an updated count of residents, but Hiram Davis employees have worked to reduce the patient population. The 94-bed center housed 22 patients in July, down from 32 in May.
Commission members have postponed votes multiple times, including in May and July this year.
The department estimates that keeping Hiram Davis open and completing the necessary renovations would cost $285 million over six years. Closing the facility and redirecting resources to community-based services or the Southeastern Virginia Training Center in Chesapeake, which serves a similar population, would cost about $115 million. The department estimates that closure would save the state roughly $170 million over six years.
During a July meeting, lawmakers expressed concerns about the consequences of an HVAC system failure, which could force officials to evacuate residents abruptly.
The facility has also faced water safety concerns. Between 2021 and 2024, officials detected Legionella bacteria in its water system. The bacteria can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia that poses the greatest risk to older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
