HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital operator, has reorganized its management structure in Virginia. The company has combined its Washington, D.C.-area and Richmond operations, naming Margaret G. Lewis as president of the division.

Lewis began her health-care career 35 years ago as a student nurse at Chippenham Medical Center. After three years working to expand HCA's footprint in Northern Virginia as president of the company's Capital division, she is returning to manage HCA's operations in the Richmond area, reports John Reid Blackwell for the Times-Dispatch.

The combined division, with about 13,500 FTE employees, will have a dual headquarters in Reston and Richmond. Lewis, 54, will split her time between the two locations.  The reorganization, she says, “is really a natural transition for us, because as we expand our footprint in the state, this allows us to streamline the leadership and focus on a statewide strategy.”

Lewis will have her hands full as HCA aggressively expands into urbanizing counties where medical facilities have yet to catch up with population growth. A $90 million expansion of the Forest campus of HCA's Henrico Doctors' Hospital will start this fall and a $35 million expansion of the cancer center at CJW's Johnston-Willis campus in Chesterfield County is scheduled for April. Meanwhile, the company is planning new new facilities in Goochland County, plus a $152 million hospital in Spotsylvania County, a $200 million hospital in Loudoun County, and a third facility in Loudoun.