Inova Withdraws Route 50 COPN

Focus now on County access/service expansion

Falls Church, VA – (September 18, 2009) – In light of the State Health Commissioner’s approval of HCA’s request to move its Certificate of Public Need (COPN) from Broadlands to Route 50, Inova Health System has announced that it will not oppose the Commissioner’s decision. The relocation of HCA’s project to Route 50 is consistent with Inova’s longstanding position that the next hospital built in Loudoun County belongs on Route 50, and Inova wants to remove any impediment to HCA’s plans to build a hospital there. Accordingly, Inova will dismiss its pending lawsuit against HCA and will not appeal the Commissioner’s latest decision.

The only outpatient clinical services currently available on Route 50 are provided at Inova’s Medical Center – Dulles South. Inova will continue to provide those services (which include urgent care, physical medicine, rehabilitation services and diagnostic imaging), but the Commissioner’s decision essentially removes any realistic hope that Inova’s COPN application for a hospital on Route 50 would be approved. Accordingly, Inova will withdraw its pending COPN application.

HCA’s acknowledgment that a Route 50 hospital is in the best interest of Loudoun County residents, given the corridor’s continued growth and its poor access to primary medical care, as well as  the fact that it conforms to the guidance of the Loudoun County Health Care Facilities Plan, is a positive step in this long process.

According to Randy Kelley, CEO of Inova Loudoun Hospital, Inova will continue to invest additional resources to improve and expand healthcare services in all parts of the county. “The county’s Comprehensive Plan calls for more than a hospital on Route 50, as important as that is,” noted Kelley. “It also promotes medical-care centers for access in the west, development of sophisticated, high-level clinical services for residents – for which Inova Loudoun Hospital’s Lansdowne Campus is well positioned – and encourages the revitalization of the Cornwall Campus. Taken together, no Loudoun County resident should be more than 20 minutes from appropriate medical care.”

Based upon the Commissioner’s decision and the expectation that HCA will deliver on its new commitment, Inova will evaluate the appropriate use of its Route 50 property and the Healthplex currently planned to go there, as the need for more services on Route 50 corridor progresses.

Inova Loudoun Hospital, serving Loudoun County for nearly 100 years, is part of Inova Health System, a not-for-profit healthcare system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services, including emergency- and urgent-care centers, home care, nursing homes, mental health and blood donor services, and wellness classes. Governed by a voluntary board of community members, Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research. Inova provides a healthy environment for its patients, families, visitors, staff and physicians by prohibiting tobacco use on its campuses.