Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Vs. Sentara

For the record let me state that while I often postulate and hypothesize based off of my own opinions this time around I can assure you that Chesapeake Regional Medical Center is ran like a state owned hospital with poor service and long wait times. If you get the bright idea to go into their emergency room, it can be hours, and I do mean hours, before your issue is really resolved. While I do realize that Sentara wants to be the largest hospital in the region I still think that Chesapeake could use other emergency rooms. If someone can be helped on Volvo Parkway and they do not need to be at CRMC they shouldn't be.

The people at CRMC are very kind and helpful, and no one was ever rude to me when I went there for nose bleeds or when I was admitted because I needed an appendicitis, but it takes them forever and a day to get things going. If you think it is bad now you should have been there before they constructed their new emergency room. The first time I went into the place I could have sworn I was back in 1982; I don't know who the interior decorators are for these hospitals but it was a sight to see.

Now that I have your attention this is how I really feel about the City holding Sentara back from building a hospital. The company has had the land on Volvo for a while now and they should be allowed to build whatever they like on that property. Chesapeake has well over 200,000 people, and to be completely honest with you, coming from a town of 230,000 that had three hospitals within the city limits I feel that CRMC could never possibly handle everything that goes on in Chesapeake.

Sentara does not run any hospitals in Chesapeake, and from I can gather it does not run any hospitals outside of Southeastern Virginia either. It has three hospitals in Virginia Beach, one in Hampton, three in Norfolk and one in Suffolk. They even have one in Northern Virginia up in Woodbridge. The saturation of Sentara's hospitals is consistent with the population in these cities in fact Virginia Beach could probably support another three hospitals if it really came down to it.

The thing about Chesapeake is that it tends to rely heavily on neighboring cities for services. People in South Norfolk, that may or may not be able to afford the time, inconvenience or money to go to hospitals in Norfolk should not have travel there for service. Sentara should build a facility in South Norfolk, but at the same time, CRMC could build one there as well. CRMC is just trying to resist being taken over by Sentara, which is probably inevitable. It is only a matter of time. These regional hospitals tend to get what they want; where I'm from Summa took over two hospitals in Akron, OH plus one in the suburbs. I guess it is a good thing that Summa does not own all of the hospitals in the region.