By Liza Fergusson

On September 27, The New York Times published an article by Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg regarding Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital in Richmond’s East End. Since the article was published, WTVR, NBC 12, the Richmond Times Dispatch, and other news sources have picked up the story. 

Bon Secours logo. Image courtesy of Bon Secours. 

Richmond Community Hospital (RCH) is located in the Church Hill neighborhood and serves the surrounding community. The location of the hospital allows Bon Secours to benefit from a government drug program, 340B, that allows hospitals serving low income areas to purchase prescription drugs at extremely discounted prices and bill insurance companies for the full price. Hospitals are supposed to use the surplus money to invest in the low income communities. 

The RCH was originally purchased by Bon Secours in 1980 and thrived for a short period of time. The hospital was started in 1902 by a group of Black physicians and nurses who were denied work at other Richmond hospitals due to their race. According to The New York Times, since 2010 Bon Secours has stripped down the hospital, allowing contracts with specialists such as pulmonologists, cardiologists, and urologists to expire without refilling the positions. Following the loss of specialists, the board of Bon Secours voted to terminate the intensive care unit (ICU), which had been previously downgraded from around 20 beds to only five beds. Doctors and nurses fought the closure of the ICU, as it would take away their ability to treat critically ill patients, but the ICU was closed anyway. The “doctors regarded [the ICU] as the heart of the hospital, the place to provide critical care for the sickest patients and those recovering from major surgery,” according to The New York Times. 

Richmond Community Hospital. Photo courtesy of Gustavo via Church Hill People’s News.

The Bon Secours franchise has invested money into the Richmond community in other non-medical projects, including Bon Secours Washington Commanders Training Center, and a mixed-use development at Libbie and Patterson Avenues, at the former site of the historic Westhampton School. 

Richmond Community Hospital made a profit of $100 million a year due to the 340B program, yet the community and hospital have seen little of these profits, according to the New York Times and other news outlets. $108 million has been invested into the St. Francis Hospital in Brandermill, as well as $49 million invested into Memorial Regional Hospital in Mechanicsville. The franchise also purchased land from the city of Richmond at a discounted price with promises to build East End medical offices to expand the resources of Richmond Community Hospital. The land sat untouched for ten years, and construction finally began in February of this year. 

According to the Times and other sources, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dysfunctionality of RCH. Many members of the Church Hill community that sought medical care at the Richmond Community Hospital during the pandemic described a sense of panic amongst staff due to the lack of resources and preparedness in the hospital. The Times highlights the story of one woman required a ventilator that could not be provided to her. Thomas and Silver-Greenberg write that, “For hours, the staff couldn’t get her to another hospital. Eventually, she was transferred to Memorial Regional Medical Center, also owned by Bon Secours, but died after arriving… Bon Secours declined to comment on whether the hospital’s lack of an I.C.U. contributed to the Covid death toll.” 

Church Hill. Photo credit: Will Fisher.

Many local leaders have released comments surrounding the situation. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney called for an investigation into Bon Secours’ use of the 340B program in a statement made to CBS 6 News on Sept. 27. US Representative Donald McEachin (VA-04, D) released a statement regarding the leadership of Bon Secours. Bon Secours issued a statement in response to the media attention on RCH: “To suggest that we don’t operate in full support of our important Mission is without merit and we take issue with such baseless allegations.” The allegations presented by The New York Times were backed with financial statements from the hospital’s database, as well as public land records and stories from community members.