Statement on Proposed Route 50 Hospital

The following statement was provided by Randy Kelley, CEO, Inova Loudoun Hospital to the Loudoun County (VA) Board of Supervisors as part of the Supervisor’s Public Comment forum.

(September 16, 2008) – For several months, representatives of HCA have conducted a campaign of misinformation with members of the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission and the public. HCA wants you to believe that it is virtually impossible to relocate their hospital Certificate of Public Need from Broadlands to Route 50.

Further, HCA has promoted fear of the loss of their COPN as the primary rationale for why zoning at Broadlands must be granted. They have also told you that Loudoun Hospital fears competition and that we will fight them on Route 50 if they decided to relocate there.

I am here tonight to tell you that this is not true. Loudoun County’s Health Care Facilities Policies are based on nearly a year of public study and public input and should be the most important factor in determining where the next County hospital is to be built.

The intent of this part of the Comprehensive Plan is for the next hospital in Loudoun to be on Route 50, not in Broadlands. The Plan clearly recognizes that citizens in the southern and western parts of our County are under-served when it comes to hospital services and a new hospital on Route 50 will fix that problem.
This next fact is perhaps one of the most important ones: No acute care full service hospital, not one built by Inova or HCA or anyone else, will get COPN approval on Route 50 for at least a decade or more if a hospital is built at Broadlands.

If a hospital is built in Broadlands, a third hospital on Route 50 will not meet the test of bed need under state law. In a recent decision, the State Health Commissioner allowed Loudoun Hospital to add 16 acute care beds that we are opening this month, but only on the condition that those beds be CLOSED if BRMC opens. That is because there is not enough need for even 16 more beds if BRMC is constructed just a few short miles from Loudoun Hospital.

Loudoun Hospital has supported a hospital on Route 50 and has vigorously opposed a hospital at Broadlands. HCA already owns property on Route 50. The Virginia COPN law allows for relatively easy location changes. WE WOULD NOT OPPOSE SUCH A REQUEST.

Moreover, Loudoun Hospital WILL NOT OPPOSE a Special Exception application for HCA’s Route 50 site to accommodate a hospital.

The placement of HCA’s hospital on Route 50 is the best solution for a second hospital in Loudoun County and the long-term future of hospital and health services because it meets the intent of the County’s Comprehensive Plan. An HCA hospital on Route 50 also allows for the orderly development of the future healthcare needs of the citizens of Loudoun County. A hospital in Broadlands does not accomplish these goals.

We urge your full support for the next Loudoun hospital to be built on Route 50.

Thank you.