Contentious Hospital Hearing Reveals Deep Divisions

By Christopher Twarowski

Originally published at 7:49 a.m., October 16, 2008
Updated at 2:04 a.m., October 19, 2008

Hundreds of Loudoun County residents turned out at a public hearing Wednesday evening at an Ashburn middle school to voice strong opinions about whether to allow HCA Virginia to build a 164-bed hospital in Broadlands.

The nearly six-hour session before the county Planning Commission was emotionally charged and at times contentious, as more than 120 people signed up to address the nine-member appointed panel. Parents, doctors, nurses, lawyers, neighborhood residents, hospital officials and representatives from HCA and Inova Loudoun Hospital took turns speaking at a lectern as the commission listened from the stage in the Eagle Ridge Middle School auditorium.

Many spoke with passion. Several were interrupted with jeers from the crowd.

"We contend that this project is the right project, in the right place, at the right time," said Mark C. Looney of the Reston-based law firm Cooley Godward Kronish, which is representing HCA.

HCA, a for-profit health-care network, wants to build the 24-hour acute care hospital, Broadlands Regional Medical Center, on a 57.7-acre site at Dulles Greenway and Route 659. Before the project can proceed, HCA's application must go before the Planning Commission and the county Board of Supervisors for approval of a zoning exception. A similar proposal by HCA was rejected by the previous Board of Supervisors in 2005.

The project has the support of the county Planning Department's staff and a certificate of public need from the state health commissioner. Children's National Medical Center has agreed to collaborate with HCA on staffing, training and equipment for pediatric care.

HCA faces opponents, however, who argue that the hospital should be built along Route 50 in the Dulles South area.

Many came to Wednesday's hearing dressed in bright-yellow T-shirts emblazoned with "Danger! We Live in the HCA Fallout Zone," or white shirts with a Route 50 sign on back. Opponents warned of disturbances from the light, noise and traffic the proposed hospital would bring. They argued that the location would go against the county's master plan on health facilities and that the hospital would offer duplicate services because nonprofit Inova Loudoun Hospital would be about five miles away.

"BRMC adversely impacts my neighborhood," said Karen Nixon of Broadlands, a 40-year-old mother of three.

Rhonda Paice, a Leesburg attorney representing Concerned Citizens of Broadlands, an opposition group, called HCA's contention that the hospital site couldn't be moved to Route 50 an "outright lie." She characterized the absence of a helipad from the company's hospital plan as a ploy to temporarily appease noise critics.

"BRMC has been disingenuous with you," Paice told planning commissioners and the audience. "If this application is approved, the heliport will be requested and the county will have no choice but to approve it."

Paice's group has received at least $20,000 in funding from Inova Loudoun, according to a June 19 press release from the nonprofit hospital.

Proponents of the project, many of whom wore stickers and twirled signs that read "I Support BRMC," stressed the need for another hospital. They cited the county's low number of hospital beds and physicians per resident, its booming population and a lack of competition for health-care services within Loudoun. They spoke about the plan's creation of 600 jobs and roughly $4 million in annual tax revenue. They also noted the $11 million to $15 million in transportation improvements that the hospital would bring.

"Loudoun County is in desperate need of more hospital beds now," said Hillary Amato of Broadlands. Amato, clutching a cane and wearing a knee brace, told the commission it took her 12 hours to get a bed at Inova hospitals after she broke her back and leg in an April horsing accident.

"We support HCA's proposal to invest in our community and bring the services and competition that we need," said Eric Steenstra, co-founder of Broadlands Residents for BRMC. "Unlike the opposition, we do not accept any outside funding from HCA or any other organization."

Gerald F. Merna, a former Marine and retired postmaster, warned about the potential burden a terrorist attack in the Washington area would pose to the region's health-care network, a prospect echoed by several other speakers throughout the evening.

"If such further attacks do occur," said Merna, "residents of D.C. and Northern Virginia may have to evacuate and find additional medical care. They are coming our way only to find many of us here in Loudoun County already filling the halls and corridors of both Inova [Loudoun] and [HCA] Reston hospitals.

"We will need every single hospital bed and trauma center we can muster to care for our citizens," he said.

At the end of the session, just before midnight, several planning commissioners requested additional information from HCA for discussion at the commission's work session Tuesday, which is open to the public.

Commissioner Sandra Chaloux (Dulles) sought more data on noise and light pollution, traffic, road improvements and HCA's plans to handle the uninsured. Commissioner Helena Syska (Sterling) raised questions about the project's feasibility without a helipad, its viability at a site near Route 50 and whether HCA would be requesting county funds.

The commission also reprimanded the crowd for the rowdy behavior of some audience members during the proceedings.

"The type of behavior that I saw earlier in the evening was just very disturbing to me," Syska said.

Tagged: Broadlands, growth, health, hospital, Inova Loudoun Hospital

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