Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The New River Valley has such a surplus of acute-care beds that Radford Community Hospital could close and city residents still would have easy access to health care, its two main competitors say.
Sister hospitals Pulaski Community and Montgomery Regional make the claim in their application to build a new, 50-bed hospital inside Radford on Virginia 177, smack-dab in the middle of Radford Community's traditional home turf.
They are competing for a state certificate of public need with Radford Community's application to trim its current 175-bed hospital to 98 beds and relocate to a new building south of Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, two miles from the Radford city line.
Both proposals are on track for public hearings in September. Both will have to wend their way through several layers of regulatory review before one of them receives a certificate of need - and approval to begin building - from the state health commissioner.
Lester Lamb, Radford Community's top administrator, said Thursday his hospital's plans, which have been in discussion for 15 years, are unchanged. ``Our position is that we've got a darn good case, and we're going to make it,'' he said.
His competitors, part of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, notified state regulators of their intent May 31 - the day Radford Community held a news conference to reveal its plans.
That was a month before the filing deadline for a certificate of need application. Radford Community notified state regulators eight months ago.
Pulaski-Montgomery didn't officially inform Radford Community, an affiliate of the nonprofit, Roanoke-based Carilion Health System, by letter until June 29.
Noting that Pulaski Community is 14 miles to the west and Montgomery Regional 15 miles to the east near Blacksburg, the sister institutions say Radford's population ``would still have easy access to either of these facilities if a hospital did not exist in Radford.''
Moreover, the hospitals argue that on average, half the hospital beds licensed for the region are not used. ``Carilion claims that the hospital in Radford is an antiquated facility in need of total replacement, despite many millions of dollars in recent renovations,'' Montgomery and Pulaski argue. ``The demand for inpatient services ... could easily be met without a hospital in Radford.''
Yet, the competitors say, transferring 25 beds each from Pulaski and Blacksburg ``can more efficiently provide the quality of care needed by the citizens than the 100-bed proposal of Radford Community Hospital.''
``I could turn that around,'' countered Lamb, Radford Community's president and chief executive officer. He said he could argue that residents in Pulaski or Montgomery counties would have suitable care if one of those hospitals closed and Radford Community opened its new facility.
In May, Lamb said Radford Community had the choice of moving out of an aging building that's hemmed in by a residential neighborhood, or facing the prospect of closure. It would cost $17.3 million to renovate and add more parking to the existing, World War II-era hospital in central Radford, according to the hospital's application.
Lamb's two competitors may be trying to speed Radford Community's demise with this latest twist in the battle for health care dollars in the New River Valley.
The sister hospitals say their project would take away 30 percent of Radford Community's patient population and 10 percent each from the Blacksburg and Pulaski markets. They argue it would be a more efficient use of health care resources that will better serve patients, and, unlike their nonprofit competitor, it will produce tax revenue.
The Pulaski and Montgomery hospitals say they can build a new hospital that would be half the size of Radford Community's proposal - and do it in half the time, at less than half the cost.
Their hospital, to open in June 1997, would cost $26 million; Radford Community's price tag is $61.7 million. The new hospital would hold 50 beds and take up 108,477 square feet, compared with Radford's 97 beds and 235,940 square feet.
The new facility would have 237 full-time employees, compared with Radford's projected 530. Radford Community says it will eliminate 144 full-time jobs through attrition by the time its new hospital would open in late 1998.
Staff writers Paul Dellinger and Stephen Foster contributed information to this story.
by CNB