ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
A TOP EXECUTIVE of Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital offered $20 for original petitions being circulated by Radford Community Hospital, according to a memo.
Radford Community Hospital has been trying to build public support for its proposed new hospital.
And now a hard-nosed competitor has been accused of trying to tear that effort down.
A top Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital executive allegedly offered $20 to anyone who could produce original petitions that Radford Community Hospital circulated in the fall to gauge support for its rival project. The offer was contained in a memo, with Columbia Montgomery chief executive officer Gene Wright's name on it, that was entered into the public record at a hearing in Richmond this week.
Radford hospital officials asked for an investigation into the memo and for possible sanctions Wednesday during a fact-finding hearing with state health officials. The two-day hearing, which ended Thursday, was one of the final stages before the state health commissioner rules on competing proposals for a new Radford-area hospital: one from Radford Community; and the second from New River Valley's two Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. hospitals in Blacksburg and Pulaski.
The memo - dated around the time of a heated public hearing on the projects in Radford - is "what we thought was an improper procedure under the direction of Gene Wright, as we understand it," said Mike Gates, senior program manager for the Radford Community project. "We don't do things like this."
Matthew Jenkins, a Richmond lawyer who represented the Columbia/HCA hospitals at the hearing, called the release of the memo a "calculated try to add some pizazz and excitement" that poses no serious legal issues.
"The memo and then the affidavit that accompanied the memo was dated back in September of 1995, so it gets served up in the hearing as if it was some great discovery with all sorts of implications," said Jenkins, who added he will respond to the charges in writing. ``Our reaction was, `Where is this stuff coming from?'''
Wright could not be reached for comment.
The memo, entered into the record by Radford Community, concluded: ``This is a fight for dominance.''
Radford Community, part of Carilion Health System, a Roanoke-based nonprofit network of hospitals, and the Montgomery and Pulaski hospitals, part of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, have been fighting for control of the New River Valley's health-care market for several years.
In addition to the scrap over the memo, the two sides fought this week over whether Radford Community Hospital has scaled down the size and cost of its proposal as requested by the state Health Department. Radford wants to build a 97-bed facility in Montgomery County to replace its 52-year-old hospital in the city.
Gates, the Radford project manager, said the hospital has reduced the size and cost in two ways:
* An on-site child-care center and a medical office building will be funded by an outside source, instead of Radford Community.
That means the center and office building will not be part of Radford's application for a certificate of public need, a document that must be approved by the state Health Commissioner before any new health-care facilities can be built to ensure there are not too many hospital or nursing-home beds.
* Planners have cut 2,300 square feet from the lobby and the food-service area.
The two changes reduce overall costs to $56 million by cutting $5 million from Radford's budget, officials said, and make the project 8 percent smaller.
The Health Department recommended in January that Radford cut $9 million from the construction costs and make the hospital about 18 percent smaller. Those recommendations were based on comparisons with other new hospital construction projects in Virginia.
Radford's Gates said some of those other hospital projects involved a different number of services and patient loads.
"In order to judge us comparable, they have to compare similar projects, apples to apples," Gates said.
Officials from Columbia/HCA's Montgomery and Pulaski hospitals, however, say the size of the project actually has increased - not decreased - since it was proposed.
Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community hospitals want to build a 50-bed facility within Radford city limits.
During the hearing, a Columbia/HCA consultant disputed Radford's claim by comparing past and present square-footage projections using four different calculation methods. In every case, the space increased from 8.5 percent to 15 percent, Jenkins, Columbia's attorney, said.
The consultant could not fully evaluate the space issue because he did not have all necessary information from Radford Community Hospital, Jenkins said.
Officials from the three hospitals and the Health Department will meet in two weeks in Radford to determine why there is a discrepancy in the numbers and conduct a walk-through of Radford's existing hospital.
This week's hearing was part of a long application process. Radford's proposal for a new hospital already has been endorsed by a staff report and the board of the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency. All parties are waiting for the adjudication officer from this week's hearing to make a recommendation to the state health commissioner.
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