Sentara Marks 15 Years Of Taking Over Woodbridge Hospital

WOODBRIDGE, VA — It was on Dec. 9, 2009 that Sentara Health acquired the Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, making it part of one of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic's largest not-for-profit health systems. Now 15 years later, the hospital system is celebrating 15 years of its Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge.

Before Potomac Hospital was opened in 1972, Woodbridge residents with medical emergencies had to travel to Manassas, Alexandria or Fredericksburg. In 1965, community members worked to do a feasibility study for a new hospital, raised funds and bought land to make the hospital possible.

"This was one of the last hospitals in the country to be built with no government funding, making it truly a ‘community hospital’ that belongs to Prince William County," said Jeff Joyner, president of Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, via a news release.

The independently-run hospital chose to merge with Sentara in 2009 after considering various health care organizations as partners. The Woodbridge hospital had been Sentara's first acquisition outside Virginia's Hampton Roads region. In 2012, Sentara renamed Potomac Hospital as Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

"We continue deepening our relationships throughout the area as we work collaboratively with our partners to learn about the unique needs of this community and the people that we all serve and care for," said Joyner.

Adding health care capacity is critical in Woodbridge, where the population ballooned from 4,055 in 2010 to 44,668 in 2020, according to U.S. Census estimates. Since the hospital acquisition, Sentara has expanded or added new facilities. It added the Sentara Heart & Vascular Center in 2011, opened the Sentara Lake Ridge ambulatory campus and emergency department in 2012, expanded its cancer program with the Radiation Oncology and the Comprehensive Breast Center in 2013, constructed a new surgical services facility in 2016, and introduced the Sentara Cancer Network Resource Center in 2019.

Renovations of the Women’s Health Center, emergency care, endoscopy, and Wound Healing Center, were finished in 2017, a comprehensive imaging center on the hospital campus was opened in 2023, and an emergency department renovation and upgrade was finished in 2024. The hospital was designated as a Virginia Level III Trauma Center in 2021, and it earned a Magnet with Distinction designation in 2024 for the highest level of excellence and nursing quality in U.S. hospitals.

Sentara Medical Group also provides primary care and surgery specialist services at sites in Woodbridge, Lake Ridge, Dumfries, and Stafford. Its Sentara Community Care program provides two mobile clinics with primary care services for underserved patients in eastern Prince William and northern Stafford counties.

In the past year, the hospital says it has focused on improving staff satisfaction and retention, reducing staff injuries and bolstering community partnerships. One other recent development has been introducing a smartphone program for clinicians to help streamline medical care. The hospital is also looking at trends of how people get health care.

"The way people access healthcare is changing and we must embrace change," said Joyner. "For example, we must further develop the digital/virtual mode of care delivery that became more common during the recent pandemic and benefit from lessons learned. Offering care in our communities, outside of the walls of a hospital, and meeting people where they are must be more common."

Today, Sentara Health runs 12 hospitals in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina and a total of 300 care sites and employs more than 30,000 staff.