Fort Belvoir is a United States military installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia.
The new community hospital will be part of an integrated health care network providing world-class medical services to beneficiaries and the US soldiers, according to Dr. Richard Repeta, director of integration and transition for the DeWitt Health Care Network. The new hospital will also offer some of the services presently being offered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Belvoir’s joint military community hospital will spread over 1.3 million square feet and include 120 single patient rooms. The hospital is one piece of a realignment designed to increase hospital and outpatient care to all service members and veterans under Fort Belvoir under Base Realignment and Closure 2005 (BRAC).
The hospital will spread across seven levels and will feature an intensive care unit, a behavioral health inpatient unit, a cancer center, an emergency center, operating rooms and diagnostics centers. The environment of the rooms can be controlled by patients and families by simply adjusting the temperature, light and other amenities from the patient’s bedside.
Evidence-based healthcare design will be incorporated to create a therapeutic, family-centered and efficient facility. Research-based architectural designs are being integrated to improve the health of patients.
Natural scenes will be integrated throughout the facility as it is said to improve the patients’ health. Hence, the hospital will be divided according to five themes, river, eagle, sunrise, oak and meadow, which will aid in bringing in natural sunlight into each patient room. All rooms will get optimum sunlight as half the rooms face east and half face the west to receive either morning or afternoon sunlight, and will feature different color schemes.
Kiosks will be placed throughout the hospital facility and parking garages offering maps for directions and intercoms to allow patients to notify doctors of their arrival. Preliminary designs also provide for logistics and administrative services, food services, a chapel and other amenities.
The hospital is being designed to emerge as environment-friendly and to earn a Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. It features swooped roofs that aid in collection rainwater for irrigating the gardens.
Colonel Charles Callahan, commander of DeWitt hospital and health care network said that the key focus in the planning of the hospital is to bring the cultures of the different military branches together thereby fostering a new culture of excellence.
The hospital is scheduled to open its premises in April 2011 and will serve active-duty service members, retirees and their families.
