Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509120002
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Montgomery Regional operates a 146-bed hospital in Blacksburg with a service area that includes primarily Montgomery County, but also Giles and Floyd counties and Radford city. Pulaski Community operates a 153-bed hospital in Pulaski with a pimary service area of Pulaski County and a secondary market of Wythe County and Radford city. Both are within 15 miles of Radford Hospital.
Site for new hospital: 34 acres on Tyler Avenue in Radford already zoned for use.
Cost: $26 million, excluding land which company has option to purchase for $437,000.
Design: Emphasis on an outpatient-focused first floor, with separate entrances for visitors, outpatients, walk-in Emergency Room patients, ambulances.
Size: 108,447 square feet building with 50 beds (42 for medical-surgical and 8 intensive or critical care)i to house Medical/surgical unit, Intensive Care unit, Surgical Services Department. Also for outpatient services including: Emergency, surgical, laboratory, radiology, physical therapy, home health, pharmacy and cardio-pulmonary.
Timeframe: Drawings, January 1996; Construction start, May 1996; Opening, June 1997.
Points of proposal:
50 percent of licensed beds in Planning District 4 (the territory of Montgomery, Pulaski and Radford hospitals and of Giles Memorial Hospital) are not needed; average daily census for Montgomery, Pulaski and Radford hospitals is 202 (1993) yet they represent 423 acute care beds and 51 skilled nursing beds
If a hospital is to be built in Radford, then it should be what the applicants call their "more cost-efficient" proposal because it doesn't add any beds but transfers beds from Montgomery and Pulaski
The proposal meshes with the plans of Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community to consolidate staffing and services to reduce costs and to make efforts to increase market share and services offered in Radford community
Since Carilion refers to current Radford hospital as "antiquated," it could be presumed that if Montgomery and Pulaski win the right to build a replacement hospital then Carilion would close the current Radford facility and remove its 175 beds from the market
CARILION PROPOSAL
Made by Radford Community Hospital, which is owned by Southwest Virginia Health Services Corp., a division of Carilion Health System, and self-described as a secondary care provider built 53 years ago. Current hospital is at 700 Randolph Street, Radford.
Site for new hospital: 110 acres on Virginia 600, at Interstate 81 exit 109, in Montgomery County 3 miles outside city of Radford. Will require rezoning from agricultural use. Radford Community Hospital will pay part of estimated $2 million cost to extend water and sewer to the site and expects to recoup $600,000 of this cost through rebates over next 10 years
Design: Mainly one-story building configured in overlapping pavilions with multiple entrances.
Cost: $50 million, excluding $1.6 million for site purchase and preparation.
Size: 235,940 square feet with 97 beds, 30 acute care medical/surgical beds, 17 maternity services beds, 13 beds for emergency care services, 9 inpatient and outpatient pediatric beds, 28 nursing care beds, and also including a wellness/fitness services area, daycare facilities, a Center for Rehabilitative Medicine (now operated off site), and 9,300 square feet of physician office space in the main hospital. Also master site plan for calls for a freestanding medical office building (to be developed as separate project) with all-weather connection to the main complex and which will be serviced by the centralized support services.
Timeframe: Construction start, April 1996, with completion in September 1998.
Points of proposal:
New facility would save $1.3 million in annual operational costs by reducing full time equivalent staff by 22, and eliminating $40,000 in annual energy costs, $50,000 on maintenance and repairs and $277,924 paid annually for leased space for services that would move into the new hospital.
Site would encourage businesses to locate in corridor area and also has space for hospital to expand
That Radford Community Hospital has "historically" been the low cost provider of acute medical care in its service area
Refuces inpatient size of Radford Hospital by 78 beds.
by CNB