Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 12, 1995 TAG: 9509120077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The hearing on competing proposals by Radford Community, which is part of the Carilion Health System, and Columbia/HCA Corp.'s Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community Hospitals was to seek public comment to help the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency decide whether to endorse either project for state certification. The agency is to make its recommendation next month.
Between 400 and 500 people attended the hearing at Radford High School.
Most of those who spoke supported the Radford Community project. One exception was Radford City Councilman David Worrell, who said the city deserved a hospital within its boundaries and not one in Montgomery County.
Pulaski Community Administrator Chris Dux held up a dollar bill to illustrate the cost difference between the proposals: $28.9 million for the 50-bed Montgomery-Pulaski project that would be built in Radford versus $61.7 million for Radford Community's proposed project in Montgomery County.
"This is what I think about dollars," responded Andrew Cohill, holding up a bill of his own and ripping it in half. "I want choice here. I want more than one hospital to choose from."
Montgomery Regional Administrator Gene Wright referred to the Radford Community project as "a $61.7 million monument" that he said fails to take advantage of economies to make health care affordable. "Our proposal is a better deal for the city," he said, in that it would generate tax revenue for Radford. "Columbia has been practicing what Carilion is only now beginning to preach."
Wright said Radford Community would be better served by renovating its existing 52-year-old facility within the city at a cost of $17.3 million. If Radford had decided on the renovation route, he said, Montgomery and Pulaski would not be making their counter-proposal.
Blacksburg architect Bob Rogers took issue with that, saying the $17.3 million renovation estimate would not come close to covering all the needs that would have to be addressed at the existing land-locked hospital in Radford.
Dr. Glenn Hall, the first pediatrician to open a practice between Roanoke and Bristol, expressed concern that the Montgomery-Pulaski proposal would not include pediatrics service. He said Radford needs a place to hospitalize sick children.
Hall decried the way the discussion of a new hospital in the Radford area had focused on the competition between the Columbia and Carilion chains. "It's getting too much that way now and not enough about taking care of sick people," he said.
Other speakers worried that approval of the Montgomery-Pulaski hospital would give Columbia control of all hospitals in the New River Valley. Hillsville pharmacist Randall Gravely said retaining competition between chains such as Columbia and Carilion is important to keep health care standards high.
Montgomery County Economic Development Director Don Moore said the new site for Radford Community would open Virginia 177 near Interstate 81 to development, probably with an emphasis on other medical offices. Radford Community has offered to pay part of the $2 million needed to extend utilities into that corridor and would recoup $600,000 in rebates over 10 years.
Wright and Dux have said Columbia would pay toward those utilities, too, if it got reimbursed in the same way. But its proposed 34-acre site on Tyler Avenue in Radford would have to be rezoned from B-2 business and R-6 residential to a medical arts district before the Montgomery-Pulaski facility could be built.
Radford Community Administrator Lester "Skip" Lamb said Columbia would like to see the region's only rival hospital dissolve. "Be assured that will not happen," he said.
Lamb said the state has ultimately approved every project submitted to it for a replacement hospital, and he was confident it would do the same for Radford, preserving its annual $7.5 million payroll and 360 jobs.
"We have never, nor do we ever plan to close the doors of Radford Community Hospital," agreed Archie Cromer, chairman of the Carilion board. "But in moving we can serve our patients even better than we serve them today."
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.