ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
It was silly, strange and showed poor judgment, but it probably won't have an impact on who will build a new hospital in the Radford area.
So says Raymond Perry, a hearing officer with the state Health Department's resources development office, referring to a memo released this week during a state hearing with officials from Radford Community Hospital and Columbia Montgomery Regional and Pulaski Community hospitals.
The memo, allegedly sent by a top Columbia Montgomery Regional executive, offered $20 to anyone who could turn in a petition circulated last fall by its competitor, Radford Community, in an attempt to gauge public support.
This week's hearing was one of the final stages before the state health commissioner rules on competing proposals for a new hospital: one from Radford Community, part of Roanoke-based Carilion Health System; and the other from the New River Valley's two Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. hospitals in Blacksburg and Pulaski.
The September memo apparently targeted the Radford Community petition drive around the time of a public hearing in Radford where both sides tried to show community support for their respective proposals.
Though competition for health-care dominance can be fierce in Southwest Virginia, Perry said he had never heard of tactics like the $20 offer.
"It's behavior that you don't want anyone to engage in," he said.
Still, Perry said the memo was "totally outside the realm of public need," and he did not plan to investigate the matter.
Instead, he requested Matthew Jenkins, attorney for Columbia/HCA, to investigate and recommend the company take some sort of action - a public apology, for example.
If the company takes no action, Perry said he may reconsider his decision.
Jenkins said Friday that he knew of no disciplinary action planned for Gene Wright, the Columbia Montgomery Regional chief executive officer whose name was on the memo.
Wright was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment.
Jenkins criticized Radford Community for waiting to release the memo until this week.
"This is a sideshow that has been deliberately produced to distract people from real issues," he said. "To suggest that the memo and the notion that getting petitions was in some way keeping people from giving public support is absurd."
Jenkins said since competition between the two hospitals heated up last fall, Radford Community had engaged in tactics that could mislead the state about public support for its proposal, including encouraging people to sign a letter of support before information was released during the public hearing last September.
Radford Community's chief executive officer, Lester Lamb, on Friday would say only that the memo "speaks for itself."
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB