At the opening of the new East End Medical Office Building, Lutes spoke about what he called a "misleading narrative."
Bon Secours has opened a $16.5 million clinic and office building in Church Hill, fulfilling a promise made to the city of Richmond 10 years ago.
The nonprofit health system held a ribbon cutting Tuesday for the East End Medical Office Building. Its leaders acknowledged the delay but declined to address why it took so long.
Construction finished just days before a city-imposed deadline.
In addition to debuting the new facility, Bon Secours announced a three-year plan for improving health care in the East End. Its ideas include constructing a new urgent care center and replenishing some medical services on an outpatient basis, including cardiology and OB/GYN.
Cynthia Newbille, a Richmond City Council member, said she would have liked the building to have been completed sooner. But she was happy to see the East End receive a major health resource.
She thanked Bon Secours for “keeping your word.”
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Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital COO Joey Trapani and
Richmond City Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille react after cutting the
ribbon to commemorate the opening of the East End Medical Office
Building on Tuesday. Bon Secours Richmond Market President Mike
Lutes (left) and Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, were also part
of the festivities.
EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH
Bon Secours came under scrutiny last year following a number of news articles revealing how the health system uses Richmond Community Hospital in Church Hill to save money on drug costs through a government discount. At the same time, the health system delayed construction on the East End building, removed doctors from Richmond Community and proceeded with the expansion of hospitals in wealthier parts of town.
The agreement between the city and Bon Secours came in 2013. Richmond gave Bon Secours control of the valuable Westhampton School site in the city’s West End, near St. Mary’s Hospital. The health system received favorable terms — a 60-year lease at a cost of $5,000 per year.
In exchange, Bon Secours agreed to construct a building in the East End, bringing jobs and health care services to a low-income neighborhood.
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Bon Secours holds a ribbon-cutting for the East End Medical
Office Building in Church Hill on Jan. 10. Construction on the
$16.5 million clinic and office building finished just days before
a city-imposed deadline.
EVA RUSSO, TIMES-DISPATCH
Bon Secours was quick to act on the Westhampton site. The block now features an apartment complex with a pool and one-bedroom units that cost $1,700 a month.
But progress on the East End site took longer. Construction started in early 2022, and on Dec. 28, Bon Secours received a certificate of occupancy. It was just three days before the construction deadline set by the city. The contract originally called for an earlier deadline, but the city agreed to an extension.
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Bryan Lee, president of Richmond Community Hospital, said the medical office building should have been completed faster, but he declined to say why.
“I’ll be the first to acknowledge this project should have happened sooner,” he said. “There’s a lot of reasons that I’m not going to get into today.”
A two-story, 25,000-square-foot structure, the East End Medical Office Building will house 147 employees working in hospice, home health, behavioral health and a wellness clinic. It is across the street from Richmond Community Hospital on Nine Mile Road.
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A room in the Outpatient Behavioral Health Unit at the new East
End Medical Office Building in Richmond, VA as people have an
opportunity to tour the building on January 10, 2023. Bon Secours
promised the building roughly 10 years ago as part of the Redskins
training camp deal with the city. EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH
Eva Russo
The wellness clinic, which includes three exam rooms, will provide vaccines, health screenings and health education. The behavioral health center will treat outpatients with ailments such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse. There’s space for up to 35 patients who can participate in group, one-on-one, art and music therapy.
The services offered at the clinic don’t include detox or addiction recovery. Joey Trapani, chief operating officer for Richmond Community, said the treatment will be complementary to traditional substance abuse rehabilitation.
Bon Secours bought deeply discounted drugs meant for low-income patients at Richmond Community and dispensed them at facilities throughout the area.
Baskervill served as the project’s architect. Gilbane was the general contractor, and Davis Brothers was the construction contractor.
![]()
An exam room in the new East End Medical Office Building in
Richmond, VA on January 10, 2023. After promising the building
roughly 10 years ago as part of the Redskins training camp deal
with the city, Bon Secours held a ribbon cutting ceremony on
January 10, and plans to open to the public soon. EVA
RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH
Eva Russo
In addition to cutting the ribbon on the new building, Bon Secours announced a general plan for improving health in the East End during the next three years.
The system intends to build an urgent care center — a facility that provides care for illnesses and injuries that don’t require treatment in an emergency room. It also plans to increase coverage of oncology, cardiology, general surgery and other specialties on an outpatient basis.
Dr. Arturo P. Saavedra currently heads UVa's department of dermatology and is interim CEO of the University of Virginia Physicians Group.
Bon Secours said it will add care in other specialties, including gastroenterology and pulmonary medicine, and it will bring back OB/GYN services on an outpatient basis.
It also will install a new MRI. When the last one broke, it wasn’t immediately replaced, former hospital staffers said. The cost of these commitments isn’t clear yet, said Mike Lutes, market president of Bon Secours Richmond.
These additions will meet the needs of the community “in large measure,” said Newbille, the city council member. If more needs arise, she’ll push for those, too.
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Newbille said she was impressed with Bon Secours’ willingness to meet with community members and listen to their concerns. Several lawmakers expressed consternation about the lack of services at Richmond Community Hospital and the 340B federal government program that allows the health system to save millions of dollars on drug costs after the story appeared in The New York Times.
Improving health outcomes for East End residents is a top priority for Newbille — life expectancy is lower in Church Hill than other Richmond neighborhoods, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University study.
“This isn’t just some exercise,” she said. “This is about lives and well-being.”
Mayor Levar Stoney has not yet reviewed the new commitment made by the health system but wants to “ensure Bon Secours equitably invests in the East End,” said Jim Nolan, a spokesperson for the mayor.
Minutes before the ribbon-cutting, a group of Richmond Democrats issued a news release calling for Bon Secours to reinvest “100% of its profits from the 340B program.”
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“Local Democrats are united in our call for accountability from Bon Secours,” said group member Tom Barbour. “We will not stand idly by as communities of color are pillaged by corporate greed.”
Lutes, the Bon Secours president, said that the savings achieved on the Richmond Community campus stay in the East End. But those savings are just a small percentage of the total 340B savings in the health system’s Richmond market.
News reports on the hospital’s use of the 340B program spawned the creation of a civic organization, the Richmond Coalition for Health Equity. The group has petitioned Bon Secours with a list of demands. Those include hiring locally, reopening closed services and disclosing how it uses its 340B profits according to American Health Association stewardship principles.
Barbour was critical of Bon Secours’ ribbon-cutting, saying it missed the point the coalition raised.
Last summer, HCA purchased the 10 clinics, plus two more in North Carolina.
“The step they took today was more performative than anything else. It was completing a project that should have been completed a number of years ago,” Barbour said.
Barbour described the new office space as “a drop in the bucket as compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars in profits Bon Secours Mercy Health has been reaping on the backs of poor patients and poor communities surrounding Richmond Community Hospital.”
He added: “They don’t understand what’s wrong; they don’t understand yet how upset the community is about this.”
