Following a trend seen across the country, one area of Virginia will see its hospice options expanding soon. The Sentara Healthcare health system plans to open in January a 12-bed hospice facility in Virginia Beach, reports The Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Sentara currently offers hospice only in patients' residences and the hospital, but the Sentara Hospice House will be attached to the system's assisted living facility. And the Hospice Alliance of Hampton Roads, a nonprofit that has been raising money for four years to build a hospice in Virginia Beach, expects to break ground on an eight-bed facility next year, says founder and president Debra Price. Sentara had been considering building the facility since 2009, but the state's slow hospice regulation promulgation didn't result in final licensing regs until 2011, the Virginian-Pilot notes.