Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The staff's report calls for denial of a competing plan by Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community hospitals to build a $26 million, 50-bed hospital in Radford. It recommends "conditional approval" of the Radford Community project.
A $1.3 million child-care center, now included in the $61.7 million Radford Community proposal, should be a separate project, the report said.
While a real benefit for hospital employees, the child-care center does not relate directly to health care, explained the report from HSA Executive Director Richard Roark. However, the center could be built simultaneously with the 97-bed hospital and medical complex, the report said.
Even while giving the nod to the Radford Community proposal, the report negated one of the arguments that have been used for it - that the project was crucial to the development of a business corridor for Montgomery County and Radford along Virginia 177. The report calls the joint development plan "highly speculative" and said it shouldn't be used in deciding the project's merit.
The report, which was mailed to board members and the hospital late last week, turned out about as expected, said Gene Wright, administrator at Montgomery Regional.
"We were somewhat expecting that kind of recommendation from the HSA staff. It's a very emotional issue on the local level," he said Monday.
The report is not binding and certainly will be challenged when the health systems' board meets in Roanoke Oct. 4 to decide what it will recommend to the state.
One topic sure to be discussed in further detail is the report's comment that one reason for approving the Radford Community proposal is that it meets the state standard that a replacement site not be within 10 miles of any other hospital.
Wright contends Radford Community's site is within a 10-mile radius of his hospital and that he has the engineering data to prove it.
The Montgomery-Pulaski proposal, however, would put hospitals within less than 2 miles of each other.
Radford Community, which is owned by Carilion Health System Inc. of Roanoke, wants to replace its 51-year-old building in Radford with a medical complex three miles outside the city. The Montgomery and Pulaski hospitals, both owned by Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. of Nashville, contend that if a new hospital is needed, they offer the more efficient proposal.
The hospital proposals have become a power struggle between Southwest Virginia's two hospital systems - the not-for-profit, homegrown Carilion and the for-profit Columbia, the nation's largest hospital system.
The agency report observed that if cost alone were the deciding issue, then the option to renovate the existing Radford hospital for $15 million to $20 million "would be the least costly alternative."
An alternative to the proposals would be to close the three hospitals involved and build one truly regional facility, "but that isn't a realistic alternative because of the facilities' separate ownership and the public desire to maintain access and right of choice," the report said.
The report also said that a Montgomery-Pulaski proposal was flawed because it was predicated on the closing of the current Radford hospital, over which it has no control.
New medical facilities cannot be built without the state's OK. In this case, that could take years. The decision the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency board makes next week goes to the State Health Department. Its staff then makes a recommendation to the health commissioner.
The commissioner must make his decision by Dec. 8; either side could challenge it and throw the issue into another level of fact-finding. At any level, both proposals could be denied or the applicants could be told to work together. Eventually, the hospitals could wind up arguing in court - and likely will, Wright speculated.
"No matter which way it goes," he said, "one or the other will probably appeal it."
by CNB