Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER AND LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Dr. Jack Knarr, speaking Monday night at a public hearing set by the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency, said the agency should exert whatever influence it has to get the Carilion Health System and Columbia/HCA Corp. to combine their efforts for a truly regional hospital located, perhaps, in Dublin.
His suggestion of putting the facility in Pulaski County brought snorts and murmurs from those who remained for the final hour of the four-hour hearing, and Knarr said he recognized that the idea of a location removed from Radford might not be well received. But such a hospital would offer services beyond Radford, he said.
"If you want to serve people in Hillsville, you don't build it down the road more," he said.
Radford Community Hospital, the Carilion facility, gets about 25 percent of its patients from each of three locations - Radford, Montgomery County and Pulaski County - and the remaining 25 percent from Floyd, Wythe, Bland, Grayson, Carroll and other counties, said Administrator Lester "Skip" Lamb.
Radford wants to replace its existing 52-year-old facility, which is landlocked within the city, with a $61.7 million, 97-bed hospital just outside Radford in Montgomery County. Pulaski Community and Montgomery Regional hospitals, the Columbia facilities, countered with a plan for a $28.9 million 50-bed hospital inside the city.
The HSA board will hear its staff recommendation and make its own when it meets at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Airport Holiday Inn in Roanoke.
Jerry Shoemaker, chairman of the Montgomery Regional board, questioned whether Radford needs a hospital at all with the excess of hospital beds which exists in the New River Valley.
"Does Radford really need to be replaced is a question that's on my mind to some degree ... and, if so, how many beds and where should it be located?" Shoemaker asked.
He also questioned the cost of the Radford proposal. "Simple mathematics tells me that something's going to take a long time to pay back," he said. "It looks like we're trying to build a Mercedes-Benz and a good Oldsmobile would do the job."
Officials from Pulaski and Montgomery also stressed the higher cost of the Radford proposal. "This should not be an issue of money. But it is," said Jim Stewart, a former Radford Community board member.
Stewart said the Radford proposal would address the need to reduce the number of hospital beds, eliminating 78 from the number at the existing hospital. He said the Pulaski/Montgomery proposal would simply redistribute beds among hospitals with no reduction.
Many of the more than 50 speakers told of good patient treatment at Radford and worried that a Columbia hospital would not provide the same level of services.
"That's what we want, is full service. We don't want a stopgap," said Bill Aldridge.
"I've listened to everyone tonight, and I've learned one thing: Radford Community Hospital is trusted," said Teresa Winninger, an X-ray technologist there. "I support Radford Community Hospital's new facility, no matter where it's put."
Earlier this year, Montgomery and Pulaski hired a South Carolina health care consulting firm called Delta Group to gather data on area hospitals. The firm took about three weeks and "a couple of thousand dollars," according to Montgomery Administrator Gene Wright, to determine this basic conclusion: Hospitals in the New River and Roanoke Valleys are good buys.
Delta President Craig Forthman said the consultants had done assessments like this across the country, often for insurance companies, to determine what hospitals to cover as well as for hospitals in competition with other groups.
The study looked at Giles Memorial, Radford Community, Community Hospital-Roanoke, Lewis Gale and Roanoke Memorial, as well as the two Columbia/HCA-owned hospitals. Forthman used the federal government's Medicare billing and cost report files from 1993-94 . He used Medicare because it had a high correlation between how well hospitals treat Medicare patients and all other patients, he said.
Columbia released the results a few days before Monday's hearing.
Forthman compared the hospitals based on how much they charged and the length of stay for patients. He said length of stay was a good criteria for determining efficient treatment.
It's unusual for an entire area of hospitals to all rank so well, he said. Radford, Pulaski, Montgomery and Giles had low charges and hospitals stays.
"What that says is the [region's hospitals are] delivering better, more efficient health care," Forthman said at a news conference last week. "That doesn't mean they won't need to continually improve their services, but they will not suffer the same severe structural blows that so many other hospitals experience."
Forthman also looked at cost efficiency for various areas such as cancer, orthopedics and general surgery. Montgomery ranked first, Radford was second and Pulaski, third.
by CNB