Despite years of warnings about the unsafe conditions at Hiram W. Davis Medical Center in Petersburg, a Virginia legislative healthcare panel on Wednesday decided not to take a scheduled vote on the state’s plan to close the facility.
Lawmakers on Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care instead decided to send Gov. Abigail Spanberger a letter laying out their concerns for the patients still at Hiram Davis and issues they want to be resolved.
The facility is one of 12 inpatient facilities run by the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
It’s a 94-bed facility that provides skilled nursing, acute medical and long-term care to people with complex behavioral health, medical, intellectual and developmental needs. Currently, officials said there are fewer than 30 patients at Hiram Davis, most of whom have “intellectual or developmental disabilities.”
Hiram Davis, which has been open for more than 50 years but has never been renovated, has multiple infrastructure issues dating back years. The facility’s HVAC system failed in the summer of 2024, requiring portable units that are still in place.
Investigators also found Legionella bacteria, which can cause a serious type of pneumonia known as Legionnaires’ disease, in the facility’s water system in August 2021. State officials said the bacteria is no longer in the facility’s aging pipes after “aggressive remediation efforts.”
“I feel if we don’t, as a commission, articulate the patient-focused conditions that we expect the department to go through as they proceed with finding new homes for patients, we will be negligent in not articulating our expectations in a formal way,” said state Sen. Barbara Favola (D–Arlington), the commission’s chair.
In November 2025, DBHDS developed a plan proposing to close Hiram Davis by December 2027 “rather than waiting for an emergency that would force rapid, disruptive placements.”
Commission members asked about other options, from keeping a unit open at Hiram Davis or moving patients to the new Central State Hospital being built in Petersburg. Those alternatives were shot down by Health and Human Resources Secretary Marvin Figueroa.
“Every person entrusted to the commonwealth’s care deserves to live in a setting that is safe, appropriate, and capable of meeting their needs,” Figueroa told the panel. “That is no longer Hiram Davis.”
Figueroa and DBHDS Commissioner Daryl Washington both said the issue is the building itself, pointing to aging infrastructure that risks the health and safety of the patients there.
“My largest worry is that we do have some type of systemic failure at the building, and then we will not be able to have any type of plan for transition to the community,” Washington warned the commission. “It would be an emergency transition to the community.”
The facility also has “frequent, difficult-to-repair plumbing leaks” because of aging pipes, bathrooms that don’t comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and an outdated electrical system.
State officials told the commission that Hiram Davis can’t be renovated in phases where patients and staff can remain in a different part of the center. In order to update it, it would need to be empty for up to two years.
Also, major renovations would force new code requirements for recertification, because many areas of the facility were grandfathered in under older versions of the building code.
It would also be a massive investment to save Hiram Davis, with the state estimating renovations to cost $94 million and a rebuild to be up to $145 million. If it closes, the state estimates $170 million in savings over six years.
The agency says that patient transitions will be evaluated on an individual basis. DBHDS officials also said the agency was preparing up to 10 skilled nursing beds at Southeastern Virginia Training Center in Chesapeake for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who prefer to stay at a state-run facility.
The department acknowledged that the location of the training center is far from many families and that it would work to find closer qualified providers.
Commission members on both sides of the aisle said they felt the closure was inevitable, and not something that they would be expected to approve with a vote.
“It feels like a decision was made two years ago, and motions have been made toward that decision, and now we’re being asked to vote on a decision that’s been presented to us for two years,” Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News) said.
Many on the commission voiced concerns about transitioning Hiram Davis patients to the private mental health group home options in the area.
State Sen. Christopher Head (R–Botetourt), who owns an in-home care service company in the Roanoke area, said that he also felt the state presented the plan as if all legislators had to just “rubber stamp it.” Head said he was worried about transferring vulnerable patients from Hiram Davis.
“If you do it wrong, you will accelerate their demise, and I don’t want to be a party to that happening,” Head said. “So, I’m very concerned, and I’m also very happy to see the consternation on the part of so many of us here.”
Del. Patrick Hope (D–Arlington), the commission’s vice chair, echoed those concerns and said that the commission needed to find consensus on how it wants to move forward because of the health implications for patients.
“The transition is life or death for a lot of people,” Hope said. “People could die in the transition, and that’s not hyperbole or an understatement. That is absolutely a possibility.”
Figueroa told commission members they were right to be skeptical, but he said there are significant safety issues and staffing challenges.
“Whenever there is extreme heat, we get very nervous because it’s a high likelihood that we have to evacuate that facility,” Figueroa said, “and you can only imagine what it’s like to evacuate a high acuity, highly complex population.”
Under state law, plans to close a state hospital must be submitted to the commission and governor at least nine months before the proposed closure.
The commission then needs to make a recommendation to the General Assembly at least six months before a facility is set to close.
Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) said while the state has planned on closing Hiram Davis for years, the decision was the prerogative of the General Assembly. She added that she was opposed to the plan.
In the end, the commission punted on voting on a recommendation and agreed to send a letter to Spanberger.
Favola said the letter will not offer recommendations to Spanberger, but that it would make clear that the $170 million savings from closing the center would go towards community-based care options for the patients.
Figueroa told VPM News that he understands the decision and that DBHDS needs to build confidence among legislators that it can accomplish the goals it set with the closure plan. But he was clear that not closing Hiram Davis leaves patients in an unsafe environment.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Hope told VPM News that it’s better to have these discussions before the 2027 session so the commission can settle on a clear position on whether to close, or not close, Hiram Davis. He said legislators need assurances that people at the facility will be safe no matter what the decision is.
“I just think people aren’t ready to make a decision, and it’s going to take a process for us to get there,” Hope said.
Copyright 2026 VPM
