By Christopher Twarowski
Saturday, February 7, 2009
In the aftermath of last week's close vote by Loudoun County supervisors to reject a proposed 164-bed hospital in Broadlands, Loudoun officials have started debating whether the vote effectively killed the county's chances of getting a second hospital in the foreseeable future.
Board Chairman Scott K. York (I), who supported the Broadlands project proposed by HCA Virginia, predicted before a standing-room-only crowd at Tuesday's board meeting that Loudoun would never see another hospital built. He was almost as pessimistic in an interview later.
"If we were to see another hospital opportunity come through, it would be at least 10 years before you'd see doors open up, and probably much longer than that," York said. "And there is speculation at this point, never again."
Supervisor Kelly Burk (D-Leesburg), who voted against HCA's proposal, disagreed with York. She said that HCA and Inova Health System own property along Route 50, an area in which Inova has expressed interest in developing a hospital. Other hospital networks also might want to build in Loudoun, she said.
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"I think there's a lot of possibilities," Burk said. "Those are not the only two organizations that build hospitals. So, conceivably, there could be another group that comes in."
Loudoun has 0.56 acute-care hospital beds per 1,000 residents, well below the 1.34 beds per 1,000 residents in Northern Virginia as a whole, according to figures cited by HCA.
Inova officials said they agree that Loudoun needs more hospital beds, but disagreed with HCA about the Broadlands location. They said the site was too close to Inova Loudoun Hospital, which is five miles away, in Lansdowne, and that Route 50 was a more suitable location.
Inova owns property at Route 50 and Racefield Lane, in the Dulles South area, and it received board approval last year to build a 113,000-square-foot facility on the land. Initially, the building would include an imaging center, a 24-hour emergency room, physician offices and outpatient services, with inpatient services being added in a second phase, Inova officials said. But they put those plans on hold pending the outcome of the Broadlands proposal.
During the months of debate over HCA's Broadlands project, Randall L. Kelley, Inova Loudoun's chief executive, said that Inova would apply for a certificate of public need from the state health commissioner for the Route 50 medical campus if supervisors rejected HCA's proposal. Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles), who voted in favor of the Broadlands hospital, reminded Kelley of that statement at Tuesday's meeting, saying he looked forward to Inova's filing with the state.
Kelley did not return phone messages last week. An Inova spokeswoman said he was out of town.
HCA's property on Route 50 is at Gum Spring Road, less than a half-mile from the Inova parcel. As part of its plan to build in Broadlands, HCA had agreed to construct a free-standing emergency department or other health-care facility at the Route 50 site. That facility has been shelved because of the board's rejection of the Broadlands project, HCA said.
Mark Foust, HCA's spokesman, reiterated last week that HCA has no plans to seek to build a hospital on Route 50 because it does not believe the area is populous enough.
"We have not changed our position," Foust said. "We are not planning to pursue Route 50 as a hospital site. It simply won't support one."
Burk said that if Inova were to apply now for a certificate of public need for its Route 50 campus, Loudoun could see another hospital "within a couple of years."
York disagreed, citing several factors. The state health commissioner considers population projections, among other criteria, when weighing applications. Even by 2020, about 87 percent of the county's population will live closer to Broadlands than to Dulles South, according to an analysis submitted by HCA as part of its Broadlands application.
York also said that other hospital companies would fight Inova's plans to build on Route 50. Fauquier Hospital and Prince William Hospital have letters on file with the state health department opposing a new hospital in that area, and state officials would take into consideration, he said.
He also cited possible opposition to Inova's plans from the Federal Trade Commission. Last year, the FTC and the Virginia attorney general's office filed a suit to block Inova's acquisition of Prince William Hospital, citing Inova's market share in Northern Virginia and the benefits of competition in the region.
The FTC became part of the debate over the Broadlands hospital at the last minute. During Tuesday's board meeting, Miller announced that the federal agency had recently contacted the county concerning the HCA proposal. He said in an interview later that the agency was acting more as a possible advocate for the Broadlands project than in its role as a regulator.
FTC spokesman Mitch Katz confirmed in an interview that the agency might provide county officials with material explaining its perspective on the hospital issue.
Miller's mention of the FTC during the board meeting prompted some supervisors to object to any involvement by the federal agency. Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling) suggested that the county send a letter to the FTC "telling them we've acted on something and we're not looking for their advice."
Miller and York said in interviews later that they were surprised at the backlash against a federal agency charged with protecting the welfare of consumers.
"I was rather shocked at how much resistance I saw coming from some of my board members to the idea," Miller said. "Suddenly, I was seeing a number of them exerting what looked like efforts to prevent transparency."
After the board's 5 to 4 vote against the Broadlands hospital, Miller switched his vote and joined the majority. It was a procedural move that gave him the option of asking the board to reconsider its decision at its meeting Feb. 17.
Miller said that he is in discussions with the FTC, and that if any new information comes to light from those talks or from elsewhere, he might ask his colleagues to reconsider.
Copyright 2009 The Washington Post Company