THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090381
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 40 lines
Maryview Medical Center's plan to build an outpatient surgery center in Western Branch was turned down Tuesday by a regional health agency.
The decision, by the Eastern Virginia Health System Agency, now goes to the state for a final verdict.
Maryview wants to move six operating rooms from downtown Portsmouth General Hospital, which Maryview recently bought and plans to shut down.
Under the proposal, almost all of Maryview's and Portsmouth General's same-day surgery would go to a new building planned for a growing suburban area. The building would be on Lynn Drive, on the border of Chesapeake and Suffolk, about a mile and a half from Portsmouth.
The new facility is needed to handle the added business that will come to Maryview as Portsmouth General closes, hospital officials told the board Monday.
The hospital already has a parking problem, said Louise B. Eidson, Maryview's vice president of marketing and planning. Any surgery that requires an overnight stay will continue to be done at the hospital on High Street.
Maryview officials said the request is just one component of plans to transfer Portsmouth General services and close the hospital in early 1998. If the state rejects the proposal, the closing may be delayed by up to eight months, said Richard A. Hanson, Maryview's chief executive officer.
But Health Systems Agency board members agreed with the recommendations made by their staff. The agency tries to control health-care costs by making sure facilities can pay for themselves.
The staff suggested a less ambitious project: moving just four operating rooms from Portsmouth General to the Maryview campus. Among the reasons:
This would cost less.
Portsmouth already has too many operating rooms - neither Maryview nor Portsmouth General uses its operating rooms enough.
People in Western Branch have good access to health care - Maryview is less than five miles from the proposed surgery center. by CNB