THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040517
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 44 lines
Maryview Medical Center's attempt to built a surgery center in Western Branch just got tougher.
The staff of the agency that regulates hospital expansions has recommended denial, saying the facility isn't needed.
The agency's board will review the staff recommendation and reach a decision next week.
Maryview wants to move six operating rooms from Portsmouth General Hospital, which Maryview recently bought and plans to shut down.
Almost all Maryview's and Portsmouth General's same-day surgery would go to a new building planned by a developer. The building would be on Lynn Drive, on the border of Chesapeake and Suffolk, near the Portsmouth line. Hospital officials say there's a need for the new facility.
In-patient surgery - procedures that require an overnight stay in the hospital - would still be done at Maryview on High Street.
But the staff of Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency says the project should be rejected. Among the staff's reasons:
There's not enough demand to support the center. The agency tries to control health-care costs by making sure facilities can pay for themselves.
People living in Western Branch have good access to health care. Maryview is less than five miles from the proposed site of the new surgery center.
Instead of building a new center, hospital officials should move four operating rooms from Portsmouth General to Maryview's campus, agency staffers recommended.
The agency's review process has been criticized by a group that opposes Portsmouth General's closing. Concerned Public to Rescue Portsmouth General Hospital says members weren't given enough time to prepare comment for last month's public hearing on the subject.
However, while the Health Systems agency can block the new surgery center, it has no authority over the sale of hospitals, said Paul M. Boynton, the agency's executive director.
He says the agency publicized last month's public hearing.
The board will vote on the request at a meeting Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Norfolk International Airport, Conference Room A. After that, the proposal goes to the state for a final decision. by CNB