Fort Belvoir Community Hospital is the newest military treatment facility operated by the Department of Defense. Located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, south of Washington D.C., the hospital is part of an integrated health care system under the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical (JTF CapMed) providing world-class health care to the nation’s service members and their families.

The $1.03 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot facility replaced DeWitt Army Community Hospital located on Fort Belvoir and integrated various aspects of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., officially in August 2011 in accordance with 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Law.

The former DeWitt Army Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir, Va., for which Fort Belvoir Community Hospital replaced, was named in honor of Brigadier General Wallace DeWitt, Sr., (1878–1949), a surgeon who served in World War I and World War II.

The DeWitt Army Community Hospital opened in 1957, having cost $4.5 million to construct. It was the second of nine hospitals planned by the Army during the building program following the Korean War. DeWitt was a 46-bed Joint Commission-accredited facility and the only military inpatient facility in Northern Virginia. It was the center of the DeWitt Health Care Network, which featured the Andrew Rader Army Health Clinic at Fort Myer, Fort A.P. Hill, and the Family Health Centers of Woodbridge and Fairfax in Virginia.

As part of a Base Realignment and Closure announcement on May 13, 2005, the Department of Defense proposed closing Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and merging it with the National Naval Medical Center located in Bethesda, MD, and DeWitt Army Community Hospital. Moving nearly half of Walter Reed’s services to DeWitt would greatly expand the hospital’s mission. In November 2007, ground was broken on Fort Belvoir’s South Post golf course for the new Fort Belvoir Community Hospital.

As part of the effort to transform service specific medical facilities into joint service facilities, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital’s staff includes Army, Navy, and Air Force medical personnel, making it one of the first joint medical facilities within the Department of Defense.

Structure
The state-of-the-art, 120-bed facility is one of the first military treatment facilities to use evidence-based design principles to increase patient outcomes, decrease recovery times and to maximize provider and patient safety. Nature and its healing effects also play a large role in the hospital’s design and is a heavy theme throughout the facility’s five pavilions – Meadows, Sunrise, Oaks, Eagle and River.

Fort Belvoir’s new hospital has a seven-story main structure, flanked on each side by two outpatient clinic areas providing both primary and specialty care. In total, it consists of five total buildings, 3500 parking spaces, 44 clinics, expanded pharmacy services, 430 exam rooms, 10 operating rooms, two DaVinci surgical systems, two linear accelerator canceroncology systems, and one of the military’s only dedicated substance abuse programs.

The expanded outpatient specialty care brings the care closer to home and reduces the need for patients to drive 30+ miles to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Fort Belvoir Community Hospital inpatient services have expanded threefold in volume and encompass a full spectrum of medical specialties, once more placing advanced care closer to beneficiaries in Northern Virginia (National Capital Region).

Evidence-Based Design
Fort Belvoir Community Hospital is at the forefront of evidence-based health care design. The facility design creates an environment that is therapeutic, supportive of family involvement and efficient for staff performance. It integrates research-based architectural design and holistic health care practices that result in improved patient outcomes, privacy, comfort and safety for both patients and staff.

The design process for the new facility incorporated many evidence-based design concepts. One of which is nature’s healing power – each of the five pavilions is inspired by nature, from the color scheme and the floor tile patterns to the wall murals and pictures.

Evidence-Based Design Features
Healing Gardens
Maximizing natural light
Resilient rubber flooring
Shortened walking distance for staff
Enhanced wayfinding and navigation methods
Acoustically adsorbent finish materials for a better healing environment
Individual patient lighting
Thermal controls
Carbon dioxide monitoring,
Increase sustainability efforts
Green power and energy conservation technology
Single-patient rooms
Integrated bedside IT services
Electronic medical records
Self-service informationwayfinding kiosks

Perhaps most noticeable are the four large swoops atop Meadow, Sunrise, Eagle and River Pavilions. The swoops pay homage to Fort Belvoir’s large Bald Eagle population and Eagle preserve wetlands near the Potomac River. Functionally, the swoops collect rainwater and funnel it to large cisterns built under the facility. The cisterns are used to irrigate the gardens and other landscaping areas on the medical campus. The swoops also protect heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment from weather, which increases equipment efficiency and lifespan.


Adult Oncology Services (Cancer Care)
Adult Chemotherapy Infusion
Radiation OncologyLinear Accelerators
Intensive Care Unit
Inpatient Pediatric
Breast Center
Nuclear Medicine
Laser Eye Center
Dental Clinic ServicesOral Surgery
Aquatics Therapy
Chiropractic Services
Pain Clinic
Rheumatology
Vascular
Cardiac Catheter Lab
Neurology
Endocrinology
Pulmonary Clinic
Patient Resource Library
Infectious Disease Clinic
Interventional Radiology
Department of Veterans Affairs Health Clinic
Executive Medicine Clinic
Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Facility
Multidisciplinary Interventional Services
Level II Nursery (up from Level I)
Increased Medical & Surgical Beds
Behavioral Health (adult and childadolescent)
Enhanced Services
Emergency Service
Dermatology
Ambulatory Surgery
Urology
Women’s Health Center
Cardiology
Ear, Nose and Throat
Ophthalmology
Health Professions Education