Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507100083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
But when purchase negotiations broke down more than a year ago, Pulaski Community Hospital and Montgomery Regional Hospital began working on their own proposal for a Radford hospital to keep Radford Community from building a new one.
Chris Dux, administrator of Pulaski Community, said Friday that if the state approves the Pulaski Community-Montgomery Regional proposal, it might bring Radford Community back to the negotiating table.
Dux told some 40 Radford business and political leaders at a breakfast gathering Friday that Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., which owns the Pulaski and Montgomery hospitals, filed its 50-bed hospital application with the state as an alternative to the replacement facility planned by Radford Community. The Radford hospital is affiliated with Carilion Health System.
"I have no knowledge about the intent of any corporation to purchase this hospital," said Susan Lockwood, public relations executive at Radford Community. "We feel that people in the New River Valley would want us to continue the quality care that we're used to providing."
Lester L. "Skip" Lamb, administrator of Radford Community, said earlier that the 52-year-old hospital on the corner of Eighth and Randolph streets cannot survive where it is. If not allowed to modernize at a more spacious location, he said, it eventually would have to close.
Radford Community's proposed $60 million replacement would have 98 beds - down from its current 175 - and would be on a 100-acre tract two miles outside Radford in Montgomery County.
The competing proposal is for a $26 million, 50-bed hospital within the city limits on a 35-acre tract off Tyler Avenue, near Harvey's Chevrolet and Food Lion.
Dux estimated that the New River Valley has from 200 to 275 more hospital beds than it needs, because outpatient treatment has increased in recent years and admissions have dropped. "Outpatient is the direction of the future," he said.
The Pulaski-Montgomery proposal would not increase the number of beds in the valley. Both hospitals would reduce their current allotment by 25 beds.
Dux said Columbia/HCA disagrees with the Radford hospital administrators about their existing hospital being too old to renovate.
"It is our contention that the ideal situation is to renovate the existing facility," Dux said. "We'd like to do that, but we can't force them to sell it to us to do it."
He said Columbia/HCA never extended a formal purchase offer, but negotiated unsuccessfully a year and a half ago to buy the facility.
What it actually would have purchased was Radford's license for 175 beds. "At that point, we might have to re-evaluate the number of beds that can be renovated at that site," Dux said. But, he added, "We didn't think it was appropriate to build a new facility, for them or us."
If the state approves the 50-bed proposal and not Radford's replacement facility, he said, "I believe it would be a strong motivator to come to the negotiating table."
But he continued to argue that the joint proposal is the more sound economically, and claimed Radford would have to pass along to patients new costs totaling at least $300 a day to pay for its project.
Unlike Carilion, he said, Columbia/HCA is a for-profit corporation that can sell stock to raise money rather than recover it all from patients.
by CNB