Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9403100020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But they never formally proposed the change after an attorney for their competitor, Pulaski Community Hospital, pointed out to the state health commissioner that such a change would mean Radford would have to withdraw from the current competition.
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering continued up to Wednesday night's meeting of the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency Board of Directors, which recommended the health commissioner deny applications from both hospitals for certificates of need.
The health commissioner could make a final decision on the competing applications by late spring.
Instead, the board encouraged the competing hospitals - Pulaski as part of the for-profit HealthTrust Inc., Radford with the nonprofit Carilion Health System - to come up with a joint proposal despite their four months of unsuccessful negotiations last year.
The commissioners agreed that the New River Valley and other counties to the south need better access to a radiation therapy center, but wanted a solution that would be best for both hospitals and all patients.
"It seems you both have wonderful ideas and if you could just get together the cancer public would be so much better served," board member Nancy JiranekCQ of Danville said.
Whether the board's suggestion will go anywhere remains to be seen.
Radford Community is "still committed to our current application," hospital official Andrew Cochrane said Thursday. The hospital will pursue the next automatic step in the certificate of need process: a fact-finding hearing with an independent officer appointed by the health commissioner.
Christopher Dux, chief executive officer at Pulaski Community, Thursday stood by his contention that his hospital's proposal is superior to Radford's.
"We plan to proceed to the next level," Dux said. "If they want to talk about a joint venture, then we'll talk about a joint venture. The real issue was the site."
Radford proposes building a freestanding radiation therapy center off Virginia 177 and Interstate 81, on land where it hopes to relocate the entire hospital by 1998. Last year it first proposed building the center in Christiansburg, but that application was denied in August.
Pulaski proposes building an addition to its current hospital, a move its officials contend will avoid duplication of laboratory and diagnostic testing services, or of having to transport cancer patients elsewhere to perform those services.
After the Wednesday night meeting, Radford Community President Lester Lamb said he was open to involving other hospitals across the New River Valley and beyond, including Wythe County Community Hospital, another Carilion Health System affiliate that announced two months ago it is considering an expansion.
Cochrane said Radford Community had discussed a joint venture with hospitals in Wythe, Marion, Galax and Giles County, but were still committed to the current application.
Dux caught wind of the talks last week. On Thursday he read excerpts of letters from the administrators of independent hospitals in Marion and Galax referring to conversations with Lamb about a joint venture located at Wythe County Community Hospital.
Montgomery Regional Hospital's chief executive officer, Gene Wright, suggested Thursday bringing in an uninterested third party to attempt to resolve the competition between his fellow HealthTrust hospital in Pulaski and Carilion in Radford. HealthTrust officials opposed Radford Community's first proposal last year because the Christiansburg site was too close to Montgomery Regional.
"We would be willing to look at binding arbitration from someone who is truly detached from either Carilion or HealthTrust, someone who knows something about health planning," said Dux of Pulaski Community.
But Cochrane seemed cool to the idea. "I would like to think we could work that out between the two hospitals," he said. "I think we all understand what the issues are that we keep hitting a dead end on."
by CNB