Inova Loudoun Hospital’s $275 million expansion is set for final approval

Inova Loudoun Hospital expects to receive county zoning approval Wednesday allowing it to move forward with a $275 million expansion plan, officials said this week.

The hospital plans to begin work this month on a new temporary entrance to the Landsdowne hospital as well as a new loop road for reaching the hospital's new main entrance. Inova Loudoun also plans to open an expanded operating department and apply for a trauma center designation, CEO Patrick Walters said.

This is part of a growing competition to provide health care to the fast-expanding Loudoun County population. In the last decade, the county's population increased by about 60 percent, from roughly 220,000 people to about 350,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Inova Loudoun plans to construct two new patient towers within the next decade. Construction of the first eight-floor tower near the current main entrance will begin in 2017 and should be done by the end of 2019. It would include two floors of empty shell space to allow for expansion, Walter said. The second patient tower is a longer-term project and does not yet have a projected start or end date.

In all, the hospital plans to have up to 1.5 million square feet of space on its 88 acres of land.

Inova Loudoun opened a new 14-bed observation unit, as well as a three-room natural birth center, in 2014. Inova also recently opened its $31 million HealthPlex in Ashburn to provide emergency department care in the region.

Not far away, HCA StoneSprings Hospital is planning to open a 234,000-square-foot facility on Gum Springs Road along the bustling Route 50 corridor. That hospital has a five-story tower with a 10-bed intensive care unit, a new 15-bay emergency department, seven operating rooms, a cardiac catheterization lab and five new diagnostic imaging rooms.

When it comes to the increased competition, Walters said he welcomes it.

"We are continuing to see growth in all our services and communities," he added. "With what is happening in the county, we welcome StoneSprings Hospital. We think it is in the right place."