HCA representatives, Chesterfield supervisors and others participate in the groundbreaking ceremony to commemorate the expansion of the neuroscience center at Johnston-Willis Hospital. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Amid expansion elsewhere in Chesterfield, HCA has kicked off a multimillion-dollar project at its existing hospital in the county.
The health system held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a $24.6 million expansion planned for the neuroscience center at Johnston-Willis Hospital.
In addition to increasing the size and renovating the existing facility, the project would also include investments in the program’s brain treatments that target specific abnormalities but also reduce or avoid the need for open-brain surgery.
Those capabilities include treatment of benign and malignant brain tumors and other issues through Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery, which involves the use of radiation beams instead of surgical blades, as well as incisionless treatment of deep-issue brain issues using MRI-guided sound waves.
The expansion would triple the center’s size to 16,000 square feet and add two dedicated treatment rooms. Also included is a new MRI dedicated to neuroscience patients and updates to the hospital’s existing Gamma Knife and MRI-guided ultrasound systems. The project would add new laser ablation surgery capabilities, which use heat to destroy abnormal cells.
Construction kicked off in early October and is slated to finish in the summer of 2027.
The project’s general contractor is Gilbane. Architecture firm TMP and engineering company WSP were also tapped for the expansion.
A rendering of the exterior of the neuroscience center after its nearly $25 million expansion, which is expected to be completed next summer. (Courtesy HCA)
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Dr. K. Singh Sahni, the center’s director, reflected on how the program has grown and improved and how advances in technology have made brain cancer more treatable.
“I’ve been here since 1988 at Johnston-Willis Hospital, and this program has grown from an infancy to now a state-of-the-art international center,” he said during the event. “(Patients) used to be told that if (cancer) goes to your brain, game over. That is not the case. This center here has completely changed that.”
In 2004, Johnston-Willis began offering Gamma Knife treatment, and by 2025 the hospital’s neuroscience program had done more than 6,000 of the procedures. In 2020, the hospital was the first private institution to use MRI-guided focused ultrasound treatment to address essential tremor, which is a neurological disorder that causes shaking while a person moves body parts.
The Johnston-Willis project comes as HCA expands its presence elsewhere in Chesterfield, which Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Miller noted in his remarks.
“This project is part of a larger story about healthcare investments across Chesterfield County,” Miller said. “HCA continues to expand access and care to different parts of our county, helping bring services closer to people who need them.”
HCA opened a 11,000-square-foot freestanding emergency room at 9630 Iron Bridge Road in June, and the health system is planning to open a 60-bed hospital as part of the Nunnally Village project near the intersection of Otterdale and Hull Street roads in Moseley.
HCA has owned Johnston-Willis since 1969. The the 530,000-square-foot hospital at 1401 Johnston Willis Drive has 292 beds.
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