Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1993 TAG: 9307140415
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The court's ruling ends a challenge by Lewis-Gale Hospital of Salem to Radford's application, but does not end the fight among New River Valley hospitals that broke out over the proposed cancer center.
Radford Community has filed its own challenge to an application for a cancer center at Pulaski Community Hospital.
Throwing Lewis-Gale into the mixture, three hospitals are competing for the right to provide new radiation therapy services to the New River Valley.
But Judge Robert L. Harris Sr.'s ruling last Thursday clears the way for Health Commissioner Robert Stroube to rule on Radford's application for a certificate of need for a cancer center.
Stroube's ruling on Radford's proposed center - which would be located on Arbor Drive near the Market Place Shopping Center - is expected within two weeks.
Radford Community, a member of Roanoke Carilion Health System, is proposing to offer radiation therapy services in Christiansburg.
Cancer patients in the New River Valley and elsewhere in Southwest Virginia currently have to travel to Roanoke, Salem, Richlands or Bristol, Tenn. for radiation therapy.
Lewis-Gale had contested Radford's application, arguing that a letter-of-intent that was supposed to be filed prior to the application had not been filed in a timely manner.
Stroube ruled against Lewis-Gale's challenge but the Salem hospital appealed his ruling to the circuit court.
Karl Miller, Lewis-Gale's administrator, said Tuesday that the hospital has no intention of appealing Stroube's ruling further.
"That doesn't mean that we feel any less that they didn't file it in accordance with the certificate-of-need law," Miller said.
Lewis-Gale has a certificate-of-need application pending during the same four-month application cycle as Radford's application. Lewis-Gale has asked to be allowed to add a second linear-accelerator for radiation therapy in Salem.
The Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency in Roanoke, which reviews certificate applications in Southwest Virginia, has recommended that Lewis-Gale's application be denied and Radford's be approved. But the staff of the office of Resource Development in the Health Department has said both applications should be rejected by Stroube.
Meanwhile, another application for a certificate of need for a cancer treatment at Pulaski Community Hospital has been filed with the Health Department. Pulaski's application, however, is pending in a later review period than those filed by Radford and Lewis-Gale.
Radford challenged Pulaski's application, saying that a letter-of-intent had not been filed in time with the regional health systems agency in Roanoke.
Stroube rejected that challenge in a letter dated June 28, but Radford has 30 days to appeal his ruling to the circuit court.
Chris Dux, administrator of Pulaski Community, said he would welcome Radford wasting money on a court appeal.
Pulaski Community and its sister hospital, Montgomery Regional, have objected to Radford's application for a center on the grounds that it should be at the hospital rather than at the shopping center. They also contend that the reconditioned radiation equipment Radford is proposing to use is not as up-to-date as the new machine Pulaski and Montgomery hospitals would install in their proposed center.
by CNB