DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708140389

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   56 lines

CLOCK STARTS TICKING FOR HOSPITAL'S CLOSING DAYS TWO FACILITIES ARE TO BE RELOCATED TO NORTH SUFFOLK.

The plan to close Portsmouth General Hospital is now on a schedule that will move all existing medical services from the building before the end of next year.

The clock began ticking Tuesday after the state Health Department granted a certificate for the removal of six operating rooms for ambulatory surgery from Portsmouth General to a new facility in north Suffolk near the Chesapeake city line.

The outpatient surgery facility and a diagnostic center using equipment from Portsmouth General will be located in a new building on the northwest corner of Interstate 664 and U.S. Route 17.

Portsmouth General was bought by Maryview-Bon Secours from Tidewater Health Care in May 1996. Maryview announced at that time that it would close the century-old downtown hospital.

The state had approved removal of the diagnostic equipment earlier this year, Maryview administrator Wayne Jones said.

Two machines, a magnetic resonance imaging scanner and a commuted tomography scanner, will be moved.

The new Maryview centers will be located in leased space, Jones said. In addition, a 30,000-square-foot medical office building will be constructed at the site. The office space will be about equal to the offices in a building adjacent to Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth.

``We are pleased with the state's decision and that we are able to proceed with our plans,'' Jones said. ``It's been over a year coming.''

Maryview still awaits a decision from the state on a plan to move a 25-bed rehabilitation center from downtown Portsmouth to Suffolk. Louise Eidson, Maryview vice president of planning, said the rehab center will be built adjacent to Maryview's nursing home. The nursing home is located diagonally across from the proposed new diagnostic and outpatient surgery centers.

Jones said that all inpatient beds will be closed at Portsmouth General by January 1998. He said a new eight-bed intensive care unit currently is being constructed on the third floor of Maryview Medical Center.

When the renovations are completed, Maryview will have 267 medical beds open, plus 54 beds in the behavioral medicine center.

Maryview-Bon Secours plans to sell the downtown buildings that have housed Portsmouth General adjacent to the Navy's Regional Medical Center.

``For the immediate future, Maryview will maintain an urgent care center, basic diagnostic services and outpatient dialysis in the building,'' Eidson said. ``In the long run, we hope to be able to lease space from the new owners.''

The urgent care offices will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, she said. All ambulance-driven emergencies will go to Maryview Medical Center.

A decision on the sale and new use of the property is expected this month, according to Eidson. ILLUSTRATION: Map

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