Broadlands Medical Facility

LOL. I wan't really paying attention to that. Just vaguely aware of it.

 

Dr. Stroube is not the real problem, as he typically relies on the advice and studies by the Health Systems Agency responsible for the region and his staff to make decisions on beds and services. In our case that would be the Health Systems Agency for Northern Virginia (HSANV). If you search the archives of local newspapers and the D.C. papers, you will find that their logic and analysis have been proven inaccurate if not outright ignorant in many of their past reports.

The biggest problem is that the health department staff and HSANV use Northern Virginia as a monolith rather than as individual communities. Using their logic, because an area such as Alexandria or Mount Vernon have an excess of beds Loudoun does not need additional beds. Rarely if ever do they consider population density and travel time in analyzing the need. Usually it is simply formula based. So if there are 2 million people in the HSANV region and that equals 2000 beds, then as long as the entire region has 2000 beds regardless of location the need is being met.

In 1994 HSANV actaully projected that Loudoun's population would decline over the next severl years and used that assumption to argue against LHC's move to Lansdowne (a process which LHC eventually won but had to give back beds to do so). They had to admit in 2000 that they were wrong (duh!!).

What bothers me is that the BoS is now using HSANV to lead the study of the "Comprehensive Healthcare Plan" that was authored by LHC. Given their bias against both HCA and their lack of credibilty in accurately determining need in Loudoun, it is clear the BoS is not interested in a real analysis of the effects of BRMC on the future healthcare environment in the county. It is simply a smokescreen to provide the BoS with "legitimacy" if and when they reject BRMC.

 

Thanks for the compliment. Not a Pats fan here (I bleed Burgundy and Gold), but I was a big Steve Grogan fan when I was a kid.

 

Liskey,

Welcome! I can understand it being hard to completely grasp the botheration and vialness this forum endured during the Chris et al infestation, if you weren't present. I am sure it even reads differently now, than how it felt during the occurance.

Everyone is a little sensitive to a repeat performance. I think you just are hearing a backlash.

Frankly, since the departure of Chris et al, it's my opinion, this forum and the discussion has been very constructive, and civil. It is a welcome change. In fact, I think more folks are now posting, as a result of the purge of the Chris et al syndrome.

Heck, Homer and I are even getting along these days. Post away!

 

Very interesting! So is this HSANV just a hired gun. They appear to be playing both sides. You are right about the view of NoVA as being as being some Meglopolis. It took me moving here to understand how it really was. I used to think Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax were the Tri-City area and were all there was up here. Trust me when I saw the rest of Virginia has no clue.

 

Warning - Off Topic - I apologize in advance

That perception is killing us down in Richmond. I worked on efforts to change the school funding formulas back in the late 90's and I was amazed at the perception that the non-NoVa representatives had of our area. Several were suprised to hear that NoVa actaully contained a large hispanic population and that there was still farming in Loudoun County.

Ok Back On Topic

I look at HSANV involvement this way. Would you happy if the judge in your divorce was your wife's boyfriend? HSANV is already on record as opposing HCA's COPN twice. Their report to the BoS was a regurgitation of their original report to Dr. Stroube recommending against the COPN for BRMC, a report which Dr. Stroube disagreed with on most of the major points.

 

An interesting article appeared in the July 21 issue of the Loudoun Easterner(in your mailboxes today).

A Hospital for South Riding?

Loudoun Hospital may be preparing to open a new healthcare facility in the South Riding area. Hospital officials, including CEO Rodney Huebbers, this week met individually with members of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to brief them on preliminary plans to open a day hospital near South Riding, according to one county insider.

Such a plan would fit with a recent Loudoun Hospital proposal for the county to adopt a Health Care Facility Plan as part of the County Comprehensive Plan. The LHI proposal calls for a new hospital in the Dulles South area, near South Riding along Route 50

 

A day hospital? Yeah, we really need another glorified clinic instead of a full-service hospital. Ok. Those of you who oppose BRMC based and support LHC's plan says we should have a hospital in South Riding, if your complaint is that the South and West are shortchanged what is your take on this? Because this proposal shotrchanges the entire county.

 

I don't agree with it either. Steve Snow needs to go!

 

As I have said many other times in this debate, one major reason we chose to build in Broadlands was because of the planned medical facility. I used to live within a few blocks of Arlington Hospital and all of the rhetoric in this community about noise, traffic and "mental patients" is just blatently wrong and scare tactic oriented.

 

You don't know that for sure. No one can say what will or will naot happen in the future. Just b/c it didn't happen there wont mean it wont heppen here. Arlington is different place with a different way of existence. The traffic patterns are different. It's laid out more like a grid unlike the new planning style of traffic management through the burbs. Although, now I don't think the mental is as much as an issue now that it's just kids. And I never thought the noise was an issue. I get more noise from Claiborne and the Greenway than I do from Dulles!

 

My brother lives across the street from Arlington Hospital. It is surrounded by residential homes on all sides with NO buffer. No problems with noise or low property values. In fact the property values have sky rocketed at the same rate as other properties in the neighborhood that are not next to the hospital. I have spent many hours there in evenings and on weekends and you almost never hear a siren. Traffic is no big deal either.

 

I don't doubt that some people aren't bothered by the additional noise, traffic, etc. of a hospital, but to diminish the legitimate concerns of those who would be, as merely scare tactics, is a little unfair. It's absurd to even suggest that a hospital won't bring such extra noise. You guys may be fine with it, but don't demean others who don't want it. You can't make the judgment as to what is or should be an acceptable noise level to others. You both are okay with living next to a hospital, or even prefer it, which is fine, but you should respect that others have the same right not to want to deal with it. And for the record, I lived across the street from a hospital for six years. Not as quiet a neighborhood as ours, but the hospital made it infinitely more noisy (and more congested) than it otherwise would have been.

 

If you don't want the extra traffic and noise than you shouldn't buy a house near a commercial zone. I understand if somebody doesn't want to be near commercial property. Thats fine. But don't buy a house across from commercial land and then complain about the commercial traffic and sounds when it is developed. I am not demeaning anyone. Just stating the facts.

When Broadlands Blvd. is finished and the land along the Greenway is developed into offices, a hospital, a restaurant or whatever, the traffic and noise will increase. It doesn't matter if BRMC is built or not, more traffic and noise are coming.

 

Folks might have missed this question.

If you live across from the hospital, did you complain about the School administration building when it was being planned? Where was the outrage when that building was being conceptualized?

 

afgm wrote

afgm, the area is zoned for this type of building and use. The property for the replacement hospital is NOT zoned for a hospital, as evidenced by the need for a Special Exception.

 

The area IS zoned for a hospital in that this is the correct zoning for a hospital. A hospital is listed as one of the uses for this zoning type. However, a hospital (along with several other uses) requires a Special Exception within the zoning -- this is not a zoning change.

This is why a hospital built on this property provides us with more input (through the Board of Supervisors) into the hospital buffer zone and layout than any office building complex would because the office buildings are a by-right use. If we didn't like the office building complex plans -- tough, it's a by-right use and they could build them any way they want as long as they met all other zoning requirements.

Does the School Board building come to mind? It was a by-right use, so if it met all other zoning requirements, it was a done deal and we had no say in the matter, which is why no one in this community sat down with them to discuss any changes the community might want. They didn't have to, so why bother with us?

 

BINGO! You hit it right on the head.

This area was going to be commercial, will be commercial, and nothing will change that. The hospital is a blessing to those close by, you can make a difference, make BRMC address your concerns. You have some good ones to raise. Make them do it now. If you have an office builing replacing it, you are s... out of luck.

That is why there was no outrage about the LARGE commercial school building. Because no one was empowered to do anything. Seize the moment, you have the power to make a difference. Don't let this slip back into a situation like what existed with the commercial school building.

 

I guess it's obvious that it's you who played "Twister" as a kid and are still playing it. The area is planned for office buildings and those who bought in the area knew this and accepted this. That's why there was no outrage when the school building was being conceptualized, not because it was by right.