Health care is one of the top issues for the presidential candidates this year. But in Loudoun County we have our own health care issues. Not who pays but where we get the hospital and emergency room service all of us will require at sometime.
Loudoun County has a first class hospital, INOVA’s Loudoun Hospital at Lansdowne, with an ER both at the Lansdowne facility and in downtown Leesburg where the original hospital was located before it moved to Lansdowne. INOVA Health Systems is a large hospital and medical facility holding company based in Northern Virginia. In addition to Loudoun, INOVA owns and operates, Alexandria Hospital, Fairfax Hospital, Fairfax Hospital for Children, Fair Oaks Hospital, and Mt. Vernon Hospital.
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), based in Nashville, Tennessee owns and operates 170 hospitals in the United States. Reston Hospital is owned by HCA.
Several years ago, HCA sought to build a second hospital in Broadlands at the intersection of the Greenway and Belmont Ridge Road. This proposed hospital, known as the Broadlands Regional Medical Center (BRMC) would have a full ER service and a number of other medical facilities associated with major hospitals. The State of Virginia Department of Health granted BRMC the required “certificate of public need” expressly stating that Loudoun County needed a 2nd hospital. HCA, now armed with the COPN turned to the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and INOVA pulled out all the stops and persuaded the Board to deny HCA’s application in August 2005.
With the growth of Loudoun certainly the need is even greater today. Nevertheless INOVA is doing everything to see that the BRMC is never built. The land use decision by the BOS is now the subject of a law suite by HCA.
As readers will remember I am a believer in “free markets” be it toll roads, hospitals, or most private businesses, and a few government businesses that should be private like air traffic control (Of Vacuum Tubes and Sealing Wax). In fact I am a bit puzzled as to why the State of Virginia even has a say in this.
Some say that the last BOS turned down the HCA application purely for political reasons. Now we have a new BOS, the majority of which represents a different party. Let’s hope this time reason prevails and not politics. It is time to compromise, drop the law suite, and build this critically needed medical center – in fact, it is probably easy to argue that the County needs a third hospital once this is approved. HCA has the ability to do this and bring not only first class medical service to our community, but also high paying jobs that will have a very significant economic impact. With the loss of AOL and other high-tech companies, BRMC would bring a lot to the table and the County’s vital signs would improve.
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