The University added some necessary space to the sprawling Medical Center this August when it purchased a building on the corner of Jefferson Park Avenue and West Main Street. Until the University finalizes plans for the addition, it will be a temporary 20-bed nursing home.
Last August the University signed a contract to purchase the 80,000 square foot Jefferson Park Center, a former 173-bed nursing home, at the corner of JPA and West Main Street.
"It is a building we have been eyeing for some time. It is important for the Medical Center because we need to expand and it gives us the ability to expand in a cost effective manner," said Larry Fitzgerald, associate vice president for finance of the Health Systems.
Genesis Health Ventures, the company that owned the facility, filed for bankruptcy or "a type of reorganization that made the property available at a price that was attractive to the Medical Center," Fitzgerald said.
The Jefferson Park Center is a strategic stronghold for the Medical Center, which currently is dispersed throughout the city. Future plans for the building, though tentative, include consolidating various University service operations or Medical Center offices, University spokeswoman Louise Dudley said. Finalized plans remain speculative.
For now the University seeks proposals from firms to operate a temporary 20-bed nursing facility.
"We are looking for someone outside to run the nursing home while the University simply serves as the landlord," said Jules Levine, associate vice president for the health system. Two firms have put forth proposals to manage the temporary home.
The center, which will serve discharged hospital patients, will be transitional and temporary in nature. "The care of patients is paramount in our mind -- we don't want to do anything that would damage the ability of the community to deliver the medical services that are required," Fitzgerald said.
No time limitation will be set for operating the center as a nursing facility. The move simply serves to cushion demand with supply and handle hospital backlog until the community is able to absorb the demand.
"We believe the community will add beds as we move out of service," Fitzgerald said.
Ten Charlottesville-based nursing homes comprise a communal network of facilities.
"We're very pleased that we had the opportunity to purchase the building and have a nursing home as long as the community needs it," Levine said. The motivation and intent behind the purchase is to tighten the cog of the now dispersed university medical community and keep it rolling down the path of progress.
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