Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9510020096
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I doubt we will see letters to the editor from Radford Community Hospital employees or physicians or even from prominent residents who disagree with plans for a new replacement hospital with 130 fewer employees. To speak negatively could be as hazardous as standing in a crowded Radford stadium to boo the Bobcats!
As a member of the board of Radford Community Health Foundation, I have questioned myself for many months as to why I had only cautionary support for the new health center. Questions raised at the public hearing Sept. 11 helped me understand my hesitancy.
Following are questions I've not only been asking myself, but also have heard from acquaintances around the New River Valley:
1. Which hospital is really the best choice: Radford Community Hospital's $61.7 million proposal? Or the $26 million plan by HCA-owned Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community hospitals?
This could be debated till kingdom come. The key word is "choice." Few will settle for a monopoly by either health care system.
2. Does Radford Community need a new facility?
The current hospital is landlocked and must relocate to serve this area in the future.
The city will suffer financial pain and then, hopefully, heal. It will lose tax revenue from vacated office buildings. There will be less retail buying by those who had come into the city for medical services, and will soon pass by on Interstate 81.
3. Do we really need this extravagant a facility?
Though most agree that maintaining a full-service hospital is essential, many are alarmed at the show-place appearance and price tag of the proposed facility.
Columbia/HCA's claim that the health center is being built as a "monument to egos" circulated in the valley long before the public hearing. Skip Lamb and members of the planning group should take a good hard look at this issue. "Customers" need to feel a sense of ownership for this facility. It will be difficult to feel a part of anything built as a monument to an administration.
I have expressed concerns about the building price. I and many others would not be happy to see the limited-service, $26 million facility proposed by Columbia/HCA, yet we are very concerned that our area cannot support a ($61.7 million + $17.2 million financing costs=) $78.9 million health care center without essentially putting Montgomery Regional and/or Pulaski County hospitals out of business and denying area residents their right of "choice." I'm trusting that the cost will not increase by several more million before construction ends.
The proposed plan describes a one-level building with room for expansion. That last word sends up a red flag. I'm trusting administrators who said the design will not be outdated for at least 15 years. Yet I won't hold my breath that there aren't plans for "next stages" of construction being discussed, even as I write.
As it stands, $36.9 million will need to be recovered from area residents in one way or another for the hospital to be debt free. For what length of time will the replacement hospital be able to provide realistically affordable health care, without passing along building and expansion expenses?
While it is true that Radford Community Hospital's goal of remaining the "low-cost health care provider in the New River Valley" is possible, this does not necessarily translate to "realistically affordable."
For instance, as the new facility attracts more patients from Pulaski and Montgomery counties, those hospitals may have to increase fees to recover expenses from a declining number of patients. Radford Community Hospital could well maintain its "low cost" status, while pricing itself beyond the means of area residents.
I urge Skip Lamb and the Board of Trustees to consider that it is not too late to make significant changes to cut building costs. Consider whether the public can afford the debt on and maintenance of an $80 million health center.
4. Will it really help the development of the Gateway area? Economic development of the Gateway area will happen in time, with or without the presence of the new facility.
One factor that will affect development is the same factor which caused the purchase of a different site for the proposed hospital - the factor of grading.
A joint venture between Carilion and Columbia/HCA on a regional health center for the New River Valley will happen the day the lion lies down with the lamb. Meanwhile, doctors will make less money, because the health care systems' businessmen will be making more.
I hope the state will choose the medical services of a Carilion full-service health center on I-81 whose readjusted building costs reflect the hospital's true dedication to patient-focused care and the reality of the contents of the customers' pockets.
\ Fran Rooker is a member of the board of the Radford Community Health Foundation, a nonprofit group affiliated with Radford Community Hospital that supports health-related activities. A resident of the New River Valley for 20 years, she lives at Claytor Lake with her husband and three children. She is senior vice president of Family Community Newspapers of Southwest Virginia.
The Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency will hold a hearing in Roanoke on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Holiday Inn Airport on two competing proposals to build a new hospital in Roanoke.
by CNB