Bayhealth is set to open a brand new hospital in Sussex County.
The new $314 million health campus will be open to patients in Milford next month.
It’s a seven-floor, 440 thousand square foot facility including seven operating room suites, a medical radiation and oncology center and 128 private patient rooms. It sits on 169 acres off of Route 1.
Bayhealth CEO Terry Murphy says it was designed with Sussex County’s aging population in mind.
“It will allow us to grow for generations,” said Murphy. “50 to 100 years out we’ll be able to provide services, recruit more physicians, more nurses to this area and it gives us the opportunity to grow as this part of the state continues to grow and age quickly.”
The new campus replaces the old Milford Memorial Hospital on Clarke Avenue. That location is being taken over by Nationwide Healthcare Services to be used as a 150-bed nursing home adding 300 new jobs.
Bayhealth doctors say the emergency department at the new campus will be staffed with peer mentors to help coordinate the care of overdose patients.
Kate Santry is a Clinical Coordinator in the Emergency Department at Bayhealth Sussex. She says hospital staff will be working with the newly opened Sun Behavioral Health in Georgetown to coordinate long term care for substance abuse disorder patients.
“Our relationship with the local behavioral health sites like Sun Behavioral in Georgetown--we have that relationship already set up and it’s thriving,” said Santry. “That teamwork together is a great resource for the community.”
Nemours is planning to add its own health center across the street from the Bayhealth Sussex Campus.
Murphy says the two health systems will work together to add primary care offices between the two facilities. Sussex County is federally designated as a shortage area for primary care practices.
