HoodaThunk?

I was having a passing conversation with a friend living well south of me in Loudoun County and medical needs came up. (A recent issue in his household required a few trips to the hospital.) I related a similar experience I’d had last year and he asked me where I had gone. I had gone to Loudoun Hospital, of course. It’s right up Route 7 from me, maybe 5 or 6 miles and a straight shot, at that. He told me he’d had to go to Fair Oaks Hospital, a distance of 12 or 13 miles, and a good bit of it on Route 50 with all of those lights to stop at. Even with all of that, he said, it was faster and easier to go there than Loudoun Hospital (which is physically closer – I checked) because to go that way required travel through the sometimes byzantine street structure of Ashburn. Why wasn’t there another hospital in Loudoun, he asked?

Excellent question. I remember a few years ago there was a debate ongoing about this matter where a proposed hospital was being actively fought in the political ring. I didn’t write about it at the time because, frankly, I had nothing really to add to the debate. That might have been a mistake. In spite of being granted a Certificate of Public Need (COPN) by the Virginia Health Department, the hospital was denied permission to build by the Board of Supervisors. Perhaps if more citizens had taken a greater interest that might not have been the outcome. The sad part of it, especially for my friend, is that the new hospital would have been operational in 2007 had the permission been granted. The distance between his house and the proposed site would have been maybe 5 miles and in far less traffic than Route 50 presented.

The proposed hospital was the Broadlands Regional Medical Center and, I’ve found, it’s not completely out of the picture. The proposed location is the southeastern corner of the intersection between the Dulles Greenway and Belmont Ridge Road. (Pretty much right next door to the Loudoun County Public Schools administration building.) The facility is being proposed by HCA Virginia, the same people who run Reston Hospital (in Reston, fancy that) and Dominion Hospital (in Falls Church). While I’ve never been to Dominion, I’ve been to Reston and their facility and staff are top notch so I’ve got no concern that Broadlands would be subpar, somehow.

The real kick in the teeth over this comes as you learn more about the overall situation. Remember I said they had been granted a COPN by Virginia? That means the Virginia Health Department thinks Loudoun County needs another hospital. Not in 10 years, not in 5 years, but right now. And that was in 2003. By my watch it’s 2008 and our population hasn’t done anything but grow like a weed in the past 5 years. In that time, how many new hospitals have been built to handle that growth?

None. As in zero.

The situation now is, frankly, dire. In searching further you’ll find that the ratio between hospital beds and residents in Fairfax County – where they have 4 hospitals – is 1 per 675 residents. Loudoun’s is 1 per 1500 residents, almost 3 times worse. By any measure and under any scenario, that’s bad and it’s getting worse as our population continues to grow. There is no doubt at all that our need supports another hospital. So why was it denied?

I recall at the time that one of the reasons given was the distance between Loudoun Hospital and the proposed site was too close. Now, as the Google Map flies, it’s about 6 miles between the 2 sites and that’s closer than the rule-of-thumb 10 miles between hospitals. If Loudoun’s street structure – and particularly Ashburn’s – were a grid pattern with well-timed lights, I’d agree with that. As anyone who’s tried to navigate Ashburn will tell you, it is most definitely not a grid and getting anywhere within Ashburn takes significant time. The population density out here could very easily support a hospital right where it’s being proposed and never interfere with the coverage area of a neighboring hospital.

Another one I recall was one I scoffed at when I heard it that first time; that the presence of the new hospital would dilute the pool of available doctors and nurses and make the existing Loudoun Hospital less competitive. First, I don’t believe it’s the job of County governance to guarantee competitiveness of a business, even a non-profit one. As for a pool of available staff I have the same answer to that as I do for any other industry. If you make the job attractive, you’ll attract the right candidates. But again, that’s a concern for the hospital management, not the Board of Supervisors.

The last one I heard was that there was no community support for the project and/or there was active opposition in the community. While that’s obviously a factor that should be taken into consideration the fact is that virtually anything proposed for and in a community will generate opposition of some kind. One of the more troubling bits I heard was that there was – and remains, if my sources are accurate – someone on the local homeowners’ board who shouldn’t be involved in the discussion in their role as a board member. I am told that there’s a person on that board who stands in firm opposition to the new hospital who is also an employee of Inova Healthcare. Inova is the outfit who runs Loudoun Hospital – a direct competitor to HCA. That, my friends, is the very definition of “conflict of interest” and should be quite enough to require this person to recuse themselves from the discussion or resign their position. My sources do have a name for me, yes, but I haven’t confirmed anything about it and will, therefore, keep it to myself for the moment. Opposition is all well and good but it should be a fair situation. Opposing the project from a position of local authority while being employed by a competing firm isn’t fair in the least and should concern everyone involved greatly.

The fact of the matter is that Loudoun needs a second hospital east of Leesburg. (The argument can be made for a third, too, but let’s get this one added and see how it goes.) None of the arguments raised in opposition to this project are compelling in the face of our experiences over the last 5 years in terms of how easy it is to get to existing facilities and the competitiveness of those facilities in the market. This is development that is not residential in nature so I’m sure folks like my fellow Loudouners Dean Settle and Loudoun Insider would get behind it. When this issue comes up before the new Board (and it will) it’s my hope that both we the citizens of Loudoun and they the Supervisors will take a fresh look at this proposal and not let another 5 years go by without seeing to Loudoun’s needs.