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As Inova Health System pushes ahead with $2.5 billion in new hospital construction, its CEO is urging Fairfax County to simplify a development process he says can delay or derail projects.
“Make it easy. You’ll get more things fast,” Dr. J. Stephen Jones said during a recent roundtable with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and business leaders. “If it’s not doable to build, building doesn’t happen.”
Jones described health care as Northern Virginia’s “job engine and in many ways economic engine.” Inova, a nonprofit health system with a budget approaching $7 billion annually, employs 26,000 people and adds an average of 1,000 workers each year. It is the Washington region’s largest private employer.
Although Jones spoke positively about Inova’s relationship with Fairfax County, he echoed developers’ concerns about bureaucracy and the time required to secure planning and permitting approvals.
Two hospitals targeted for 2028
Inova is building two hospitals to replace its aging Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road.
A 192-bed hospital is under construction at West End Town Center, formerly the Landmark Mall site, in Alexandria. Inova is also developing a 110-bed Franconia-Springfield hospital connected to its existing HealthPlex outpatient facility.
Both hospitals remain on schedule to open in late 2028—and could potentially begin operating on the same day, Jones said.
“It will be an employment magnet,” he said of the investment. “We have confidence in our ability to arrive and thrive.”
The Seminary Road hospital will close after the new facilities are completed. Inova has been considering a housing-centered redevelopment of that property.
Fairfax emergency department grows
Inova is also expanding the emergency department at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Woodburn. The project will roughly double the size of an emergency room that ranks as the nation’s fourth busiest.
Work completed so far includes a new children’s emergency department with a separate entrance and a mental health unit. Inova is now expanding the adult emergency department and adding an entrance facing Gallows Road. The second construction phase is expected to be completed in 2028.
At the same time, Inova is working to provide more urgent-care choices for patients. Jones said those facilities generally offer treatment at a lower cost than hospital emergency departments.
The health system is placing additional emphasis on community-based facilities, particularly in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of low-income residents.
“We’ve been very much intentional in meeting the need where the need is,” Jones said.
Jones also sought to ease concerns about Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, which recently marked its 50th anniversary. He said Inova has no plans to reduce acute-care services there.
“As long as I am CEO, it will be a thriving hospital we are investing in,” he said.
Inova’s spending on care for patients unable to pay increased 27% over the past year. Jones said the organization does not avoid providing such care.
He also acknowledged both the opportunities and difficulties artificial intelligence could bring to health care, saying Inova would do its best to keep pace with the technology’s evolution.
Fairfax County’s partnership with the organization that became Inova dates to planning for Fairfax Hospital in the 1950s. The hospital opened in 1961, and the health system has expanded throughout the region in the decades since.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said he has strong confidence in Inova’s leadership and direction. He also argued that regional health-care capacity supports economic development because companies consider access to medical care when deciding where to relocate or expand.
Supervisor Dan Storck, chairman of the Council for Economic Opportunity, noted that health care’s share of the national economy has more than doubled over the past 50 years to 18%. Continuing to add facilities and services, he said, is a necessity rather than a choice.
“If we’re not winning, we’re losing,” Storck said.