Sentara Lake Ridge Ready to Grow

LAKE RIDGE, Va. — Equipped with a 24-hour emergency room, x-ray imaging and test labs, doctors and nurses at the Sentara Lake Ridge Medical Campus have been busy since it’s opening in March.

Sentara’s first ambulatory medical facility in Northern Virginia, it sits at the intersection of Minnieville and Summit School roads, near busy Old Bridge Road. That makes it easy for area residents in need of immediate or specialized care to simply walk in and see a doctor.

Most if not all patients are walk-ins as Ambulances do not come here, but Sentara Lake Ridge is built to handle anything from sprained ankles to heart attacks.

While they don’t post estimated wait times for their emergency department, they aim for a 90-minute turn around from the time a patient registers to the time they’re discharged. So far, the record here has been 18 minutes. 

Dr. Mary Ann McLaurin sits at the helm of this new facility and came here after spending 20 years at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge – now aptly named Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

“This place is beautiful,” said McLaurin. “We wanted to make a place where patients can come and get expert care in a relaxing environment.”

In the center’s 14-room emergency department, the walls are painted in cool earth tones, the counter tops clean and clear, and the medical carts filled with tools that assist nurses and doctors are neatly stashed out of sight until they’re needed again. You might think you were in a spa if the sign outside didn’t state “emergency.”

McLaurin uses an interconnected computer system linked with Sentara’s nearby hospital which allows her to pull up patients’ old EKG test results, chest X-rays, and lab data – information that can be critical to saving a life. The busiest times in the emergency room are between 5 and 9 p.m.

The Lake Ridge center will see an estimated 14,000 patients during its first year. As the area’s population continues to grow, the center is designed to see 30,000 per year. It’s one of a handful of centers that could be built in Northern Virginia as Sentara looks to expand its footprint.

By comparison, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center sees about 60,000 patients per year. The Lake Ridge center is not designed to alleviate the hospital’s patient load, but rather complement the hospital while growing with the community.

As you go deeper into the Lake Ridge campus, the CT scanner is used about 70 times per week. Natural light pours into the room where the scanner is located from a window, making the experience more inviting for patients. 

There are also two ultrasound rooms where a mother and her family can view a fetus in 4-D imaging on a large 42-inch TV screen. It’s a joyful, clinical procedure  between doctors and patients at Lake Ridge. Doctors said 30 percent of the work done in this unit is OB work.

And with the center’s mammography unit here at Lake Ridge, and a new van that comes to area workplaces, Sentara officials say they are working reduce cases of breast cancer, which are prevalent in Prince William County. 

Bone density scans are also offered at Lake Ridge, as well as a host of clinical services such as school sports physicals.

Later this year, a cluster of doctor’s offices will open on the second floor of the building.

 *Correction: Sentara Lake Ridge is Sentara’s first ambulatory care facility in Northern Virginia.