Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409140085
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI COMMUNITY HOSPITAL STILL WANTS CANCER TREATMENT CENTER

For that matter, Radford Community Hospital also has not given up on its application for the center, either; even though it is one of the four hospitals involved in the Wytheville application.

The original competition was between Radford and Pulaski for a radiation treatment center, which would be closer to New River Valley and Western Virginia cancer patients who must now travel to Roanoke.

The agency board declined to recommend one or the other, and instead urged the two hospitals to try to work out a cooperative venture.

Chris Dux, administrator at Pulaski Community Hospital, said the agency staff had recommended Pulaski's application even though the board did not act on it. He said negotiations with Radford Community did not work out.

Dux said Radford joined Wythe County Community, Twin County Community in Galax and Giles Memorial in the joint application ``and didn't tell us until after the fact, so it didn't appear to me that they were interested in any joint venture with us.''

Andy Cochrane, a spokesman for Radford Community, was asked whether Radford now was seeking approval for its own application or the joint venture.

``Well, both. Both applications are active at this point. However, we do feel that the joint application is preferred by the state,'' he said.

He said Radford Community began to look into the possibility of a joint venture after the agency board declined to support either Radford's or Pulaski's application and made it clear that it preferred a cooperative venture.

In looking at the patient area involved between Roanoke and Bristol, Cochrane said, it became clear that a Wytheville location would be most central.

``As much as we would like to have a center right here at Radford to support our patient population and that of Montgomery County, we really feel that the preferred location has to be Wytheville,'' he said.

The final decision will be made by the state health commissioner, probably by Nov. 7. On Sept. 20, a fact-finding hearing is scheduled in Richmond; and Dux said Pulaski would make its case for the center at that time.

``Right now, our concern has to be our pending application and not an application that comes along after the fact,'' he said. ``I'm certain that ours is the superior application.''

Dux also noted that three of the four hospitals in the joint application - Radford, Giles and Wythe - are affiliated with Carilion Health System of Roanoke.

Giles and Wythe have management contracts with Carilion. Howard Ainsley, administrator at the Wythe hospital, recent issued a memo to its employees that rumors of a more formal affiliation with Carilion are unfounded, although the hospital did recently link its billing services to a Carilion computer in Roanoke.

``We believe that [the Pulaski hospital] can demonstrate a need for the service. If we can do that to the satisfaction of the state, then there should be no reason for them not to grant us a certificate of need,'' Dux said.