BRMC reapproved by Stroube

Amen.

When our current eight month baby was only 10 days old, he had an episode where he stopped breathing and froze up for five to ten seconds. It was almost like he was choking on air. We called the ambulance and they took him to LHC. At this point, he was breathing fine but we didn't know if he would have another episode or not. This was on a Monday night. The LHC ER was overflowing -- mind you, on a Monday night. We had to wait over 30 minutes merely to get into triage, an hour to get into the ER and then almost another hour to be seen by a doctor. After finally seeing a doctor and getting some tests, they finally cleared him to leave. We were there for six hours, but it should have only taken two hours at most. Fortunately, nothing was seriously wrong with our baby. I hate to imagine if something had been wrong. I'm not sure we could have gotten the immediate care we would have needed.

If this is the state of LHC right now, what is going to happen as the new homes in Broadlands, Lansdowne and Brambleton (and elsewhere in the surrounding area) become built in the near term? The LHC ER will be more of a nightmare than it is now.

 

Barbara,

I believe that vw was saying that Rt. 50 should get a hospital when
the population density makes it attractive enough for some entity
to decide that they can make a profitable (or non money losing in
the case of a non-profit) business there. I don't know about
the projections you are referring to but I do know that neither
HCA or Inova is willing to build a hospital on Rt. 50 now or in
the near future (5 years or less). If there was a business model
they thought would work, one of both of them would be applying to
the state for a COPN. Seems like you are trying your own spin
on number. If not, then why hasn't Inova applied for a COPN to
build on Rt. 50?

HCA sees a business model here in Ashburn and think they can make
healthcare in the county better. Their presence has already forced
LHI to improve which is a good thing. I don't believe that BRMC
would mean that a hospital could not be built on Rt. 50 in the
future when the population there will support it.

skins fan

 

Well guys, I guess whoever made book on how many pages this would be was right. Maybe we should just start posting links to previous threads so we don't have to type it all again?

No intent to belittle what has happened to any of your families, no intent to control Ashburn. No point in putting words in mouths either if we do have the option to just link to all previous.

One thing I will retype, in counterpoint to the fact that there is also no intent to put Manhattan on Route 50, is any group (HCA and Inova) must get their data from the county in question. The data HCA presented to us (Inova did not present, because this was pre-merger) was several years old, included a remark from their atty that the county had told them "there would be no further growth on route 50" (in a by-right state? Right.), and put before Dr. Stroube (to gain the reversal of his original denial) projected a total of 6000 people in the quadrant of the county bounded by 659, Route 50, the Fairfax line, and Bull Run, in 2010. This was when just our HOA had over 4000 occupied residences. We are by no means the only development here. We are projected for full buildout by 07 at approx 6600 units. At even one person per residence in just one subdivision in a portion of the projection area, that is 10% over HCA's projections for a region three years early. IOW, their numbers (from the preceding administration) are wrong.

As for TODs, you're going to get Manhattan much sooner than we will: Moorefield not only added beaucoup paper people the minute it was approved, but keep an eye on the county bus system--when we accumulate enough buses, will it be determined that Loudoun has "transit", and trigger phase II? And of course no one who moves into those thousands of apartments will own cars.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

As usual you don't answer the question and try to deflect the conversation into some minor point that doesn't change anything. I still want to know why you/we can't all support both?

I won't debate you on the HCA numbers. Maybe they were somewhat outdated. That doesn't change the fact that neither HCA or Inova are going to build a hospital on Rt. 50 in the next 5 years. Even if HCA used the most accurate numbers available, they still would not have applied to build a hospital on Rt. 50.

Healthcare doesn't have to be an us versus them scenario unless you make it one.

skins fan

 

You're right about Us/them Skins fan, and that is why some people down here feel as angry as VW was with me when people in an area with easy access seem to be adamant about needing choice before other areas have better access.

I was at a Board meeting a few months ago, and a woman I'd never seen before came to the podium and addressed the letter Scott York had written on behalf of HCA, in which he'd said the same things about the Route 50 corridor, and said something to the effect that we should continue to go outside the county. This woman laid him on his ear in the nicest way imaginable, and said she'd been paying taxes in Loudoun for 20 years, and if he was going to spend time talking about representing all citizens, then maybe he shouldn't tell the whole southern half of the county to leave for services. Well.

If you wish to frame it as us vs. them, I guess you can. But I have spent part of the day thinking about VW's post that he went to Reston because he wouldn't go to Lansdowne, and that's why he feels that we needed BRMC years ago. (And before anyone gets angry at my apparent cavalier dismissal of the gravity of a spinal tap, I stood in the hall at Sibley after my C-section watching them do one on my son when he was a day old.) I wondered if the woman I heard at the Board would interpret that part of VW's story as "three for some"?

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

Barbara,

It's real simple.

South Riding can promote a hospital in your part of the County; or for that matter any public facility down there. I really don't care.

A hospital in the Rt 50 corridor can not be justified at this time. I haven't heard anyone fighting to "build it now". Given that FACT, your only viable tactic seems to be -- attack BRMC.

All postured in the twisted logic : if "they" don't get it we will.

That's why you won't answer the question, "would you support one in both locations?"

Justify a hospital in your location, on its' own merits (good luck), not by denying someone else one that is justified.

It's really that simple.

 

perhaps we should build 5 more hospitals in the broadlands so you guys can pick and choose which ones to go to! To me, it just doesn't make much sense to have two hospitals with such close proximity, end of story. Fairfax Hospital is regarded as one of the best in the area, so I'm sure to you LHC-haters, now that it is controlled by inova, things should "improve" there.

Regarding crowded emergency room whining.... It happens at the best hospitals. I know it sucks to wait, but they have to prioritize.

I had surgery in the reston HCA and it was fine.. I don't think the hospital matters as much as the doc you get for general stuff.... but I can see the need for heart catheterization facilities and the like.... but you don't need a whole new hospital for that.

I would rather have the choice of another hospital around here, but I think closer to brambleton/rt50 would be better. I think it's selfish to want two hospitals within 4 miles or whatever it is. I would rather have another hospital a few more miles away from me if it can benefit people that don't already have a hospital really close like us.

Just my 0.02

 

AFGM, should we now post the links to the multiple sections where it is discussed that once one sits on the Greenway, approvals will be blocked anywhere else for years?

I see the toll road is going up again.

That is "smart" growth: put all facilities in one place, so all growth can be directed there. Control people's choices (and healthcare is not a choice for some folks), control their ability to access the choices, and you control the people. We could post all those links too.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I'm with Boomer -- the "business case" for one hospital 5 miles from another is stealing business, not serving the county (most of which is further away).

 

Just because it happens at the "best" hospitals doesn't mean that another hospital isn't needed. The quality of a hospital or its characterization as "best" isn't necessarily tied to the hospital's capacity to serve increased masses of people.

 

But, that's ignoring the basic </u>mission of a hospital: to serve the medical needs of the populace, not to support the business goals of a hospital conglomerate. The question shouldn't be "What's the business case for HCA (or another corporation)", but rather "What's best for Loudoun County residents?"

In this case, I don't think our medical needs are adequately served by Loudoun Hospital. As others have suggested, this needn't necessarily be a "Route 50 vs. Broadlands" scenario. If the county resident needs are better served by two hospitals, so be it.

 

You keep making the same arguement. "If it is in Broadlands then no one else will get one." First, if you have your way and BRMC does not get the board approval, instead of your "Three for some" we will have "None for years". Like it or not HCA "owns" the only beds Loudoun is going to get for the forseeable future. The State is NOT going to even entertain new COPN applications until HCA's beds are either online at BRMC or are staying where they currently are.

In fact HCA's COPN was approved in part because there would be a net reduction in beds with the closing of the two existing facilities and move to BRMC. Simple math tells you that new COPN's will have a better chance of succeeding if HCA brings the new hospital to Loudoun.

I also take issue with your statement that a new hospital in Broadlands eliminates any chance for one on 50 (assuming that on one 50 makes sense). What are you basing that on? Proximity to BRMC? Proximity to LHC was not a deal killer for BRMC. It can't be the beds since the state considers the ratio of beds to population in the HSA as a guideline and not population in a given county.

What is being argued here is reality versus wishful thinking. BRMC has land, state approvals, and pending a single board vote to allow an already approved use of the propery, can break ground tomorrow. This future route 50 hospital exists only in the minds of its supporters and even it's most likely partner (Inova) has stated publicly that they don't see a need for a full-service hospital in the south for at least 10 years.

What exactly do we have easy access to? You have a quicker route to Fair Oaks and Fairfax than we do. LHC does not provide most of the services that my family needs (or many of the families in Loudoun) so to me you have better access than I do today. If BRMC is not built what exactly will anyone have access to then? Nothing but hope and promises.

 

The problem is there is no one other than the BoS and some of the residents in the south talking about building a hospital. Inova says 10 years, HCA said the location is not viable, and no one else has stepped forward to say "We will build it". This isn't "Field of Dreams" - if we demand it they will come. Just getting the approval to move or add beds to the area is a multi-year process that no one can say right now would even allow for a hospital in the south ate all if ever. This is my problem with everyone jumping in AFTER all fo the work has been done to get BRMC.

There was NO ONE arguing for a hospital on 50 until BRMC was approved. LHC's position until last year was that no new hopitals were needed in Loudoun County, period. Not until LCH drafted the amendment to the CPAM to designate areas for hospitals did the hue and cry start for one on 50 (hmm.. No hospital needed, oops I mean yes but only in the south) BTW the hopspital LHC "proposed" for 50 was not even a full-service faciltiy ala Fairfax but a day hospital.

If you want to make the arguement against BRMC in favor of other locations 5 years ago, maybe I could see it. Reality is that if BRMC is not built we will have nothing additonal for most likely a decade and what we get then (if LHC has it's way and right now they seem to have a "finger" on the BoS) will be a day hospital. Are you willing to trade a full-service hospital that can be operational in 2 years for the hope of a semi-hospital that may be online in 10?

 

VW, access for the entire 50 corridor in Loudoun, plus all of the west, is much more limited than your access to LHI and Reston. Is the argument for care in county only applicable in the Greenway corridor, i.e. choice in that region?

Even though AFGM subtly places the words in my mouth (for the 43rd time) that I am "attacking" BRMC, I'm not speaking against it. You will no doubt have plenty of residents in your own community who are the most directly impacted out to speak against it.

I've got to congratulate you on the absolute best new version of the same-old: the "if it were five years ago" you'd accept it. Bully for you! Sorry, I think I'll just have my opinion. But I think that is funny, particularly when the first your community heard of it was when they drove past the tent with the press conference, where Scott York and the left-town-two-weeks-before-they-said-he-was-gone "smart" growth former developer of your community were announcing it to the press as a done deal. We'll see what happens, and I hope whatever it is happens without too much further division in your community over it.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I'm laying double or nothing on the 35 page O/U. Can't everyone be entertained with:

http://hoa.broadlands.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1019&SearchTerms=BRMC

There's 49 pages there and really, nothing's changed since then.

 

VW, what are these services that your family "needs"? I saw you mentioned spinal tap...

Just wondering...

 

Truth and solid judgement appear when politics and OIMBY (only in my back yard &lt;read Barbara&gt are removed from the equation!

More momentum for BRMC:

http://www.leesburg2day.com/current.cfm?catid=17&newsid=10655

 

AFGM, OIMBY is pretty funny, but it may not be the best argument to use when you live in the five mile strip between LHI and BRMC's potential site. Yep, I'm the only other person in the whole rest of the 500 square miles!

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I just caught this. What a pack of lies.

Barbara you ran this line through us last time by stating you would never speak against BRMC, and you didn't want to "attack" BRMC.

I didn't place words in your mouth. You stated them publicly at the BOS Public Hearing, where you spoke against BRMC. There was nothing subtle about your personally spoken statement against BRMC. Would you like us to go to the video tape to remind you.

At the least others, who may be just reading this stuff, should know the truth about your agenda.

 

Summary:
1/2 of Broadlands wants the hospital
1/2 of Broadlands doesn't want the hospital
AFGM wants the hospital in Broadlands
Barabara wants a hospital on Rt. 50
HCA will only build in Broadlands

Can we end this thread now.... PLEASE!