Broadlands Medical Facility

SK8R - I have done "some" homework. Maybe re-route is the wrong word but what I meant is that patients (accident victims) are still being sent to other hospitals when Loudoun is the nearest.

As far as Broadlands being a busy place, you are talking about a small corner of Broadlands. I would be willing to bet that most deliveries that you speak of will come via Claiborne and with the exception of the short drive down Broadlands Blvd, there are not alot of homes there, nor will there be.

 

There was actually a fairly good rundown of patient transport routing in last weeks Leesburg Today under the story headline of: "LHI Takes Most Patient Transports. I quote:

"Most of the hospital transports in 2003 were to Loudun Hospital Center - 4,966 - with its Cornwall campus in Leesburg second, with 596 transports. Reston Hospital accepted 566 transports and only Fair Oaks had more than 100 transports with 120.<sic>"

I leave the interpretation of these numbers to others, but it does look like LHI is taking 89% of the transports if one includes both Lansdowne & Cornwall in the total.

Why the 686 needed to head to Reston or Fair Oaks may just be due to the fact that not all family doctors are affiliated with LHI.

Again ... just raw numbers.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Here is some education on the "re-route issue." If a patient is sent to a LHI (Loudoun Hospital) and an inner-facility transport is completed to the other LHI site it will not be seen as a re-route. Re-routes occur when 911 agency ambulances are called to a place and are re-routed to another facility other than the closest facility that can facilitate the patient's needs for definitive care.

Western end facilities are beginning and have been transporting their patients to Winchester Medical Facility or Fredrick memorial, Sterling folks have been sending some of their folks to Reston.

Re-route occurs when LHI is unable accomodate levels of service to the community. Trauma patients usually do not go to LHI because of the level of service they require. They are usually air lifted from the scene to Fairfax or Washington Hosiptal Center (They are the Level 1 trauma centers in our region).

It seems to me that since (A) the population in Loudoun is increasing significantly and (B) LHI has been doing an okay job most of the time; it would make sense that we as a community and as concerns citizens for Loudoun make the move to support another hospital. Hospital's do not pop up over night and take years in the design and approval proceess. When and if the HCA facility opens it will be in a time when it will be significantly needed due to the density and population loading in the Sterling, Ashburn and Leesburg areas.

The time of Loudoun being a small rural community is gone and has been gone. Development in Loudoun is increasing and we really need to be prepared for this and act appropriately and collaboratively to foster new relationships with business and community partners. If HCA is postering for the position and has shown a COPN what is the problem. A for profit hosptial vs a non-profit. I don't see the difference. Each company in the past has had their share of problems and dirty laundry. They are no different than an MCI-Worldcom. Everyone did't quit their jobs (well the ones that did not get fired). Customers didn't just leave MCI. We need to plan for the future and look for what is best for Loudoun as it is growing. The need for an additional hospital is valid, the site in broadlands is available and useable to facilitate the needs of the community.

 

This isn't just about "does Loudoun need another hospital?" it's about "does a county of this size need two hospitals within 5 miles of one another?"

 

This isn't just about "does Loudoun need another hospital?" it's about "does a county of this size need two hospitals within 5 miles of one another?"

The county density population is in this area where the Hospital is slated to go. It think it is about do we another hospital in Loudoun and why is it not in Broadlands. What are you going to do in the next five years if there is lack of service... Complain.. To who and about what... You have the opportunity get behind it and support it. Having a community hospital is not a bad thing

 

You're right... Having a community hospital is not a bad thing, and the good news is... We already have one.

 

I've been here almost two years, listened to all of the arguments, and remain convinced that the Broadlands hospital is a benefit to our community and to eastern Loudoun.

The traffic and noise concerns are completely overblown, as hospital traffic will be largely confined to Claiborne, Broadlands Blvd, and Belmont Ridge (when that connection is completed as part of hospital development). I lived for many years within 1/2 mile of Arlington Hospital (now Virginia Hospital Center) and speak from experience that the traffic is no different than any other commercial development, is mostly confined to the daytime, and sirens are turned off once emergency vehicles enter a residential neighborhood.

To those who are new to this debate, many of your neighbors want Broadlands to remain a relatively isolated and removed subdivision from the rest of the county. I can respect that desire, but in my opinion, it's a "Truman Show" fantasy. They ignore the clear representations on every Broadlands master plan that I've seen since 2001 that the community is to include significant commerical and retail development, including a hospital. They also ignore the fact that Claiborne Parkway and Broadlands Blvd. will be major county thoroughfares once fully completed (Claiborne from south at Rte. 772 to the north at Rte. 7, and Broadlands Blvd. from Belmont Ridge Rd. on the west to Ashburn Rd. on the east). When deciding to buy here, we considered this entire community plan, and we knew the hospital was coming. All of it went into our decision to buy in a vibrant, diverse, and more than home-filled community.

 

Except that alot of Folks bought here BEFORE 2001 when it wasn't shown on the maps!

 

I don't recall seeing a hospital designation on any site plan before late 2002. And certainly not a mental hospital. In fact, I believe some plans still show that space as earmarked for offices. In any event, I still think the arguments that we need this facility because of our population explosion are laughable. Again, one fourth (at least) of the beds will be for psychiatric inpatients. This has nothing to do with any need for these services in Loudoun. It is doubtful that very many of these patients will even come from Loudoun. The psychiatric portion of this facility, which I understand will be a larger percentage of the hospital services than any other, are being put here to solve Dominion Hospital's obsolescence problem, not to deal with our population growth. It seems to me, therefore, that if we need a "hospital" here, this facility works against those needs, by taking such a huge portion of badly needed beds and reserving them for psychotic patients that would otherwise go to Dominion (which is in Falls Church).

 

Does anyone have an idea what a hospital is going to do to home values in the vicinity, such as the homes in the streets left off Broadlands Blvd?

I've been trying to find some research on this, but have not been able to come up with anything.

M.

 

Being against it because you were not aware of the possibility that the development may include a hospital is understandable, but the bigotry towards individuals with mental illness, including mischaracterizing it as a “mental” hospital, and the patients as “psychotic” is unconscionable.

 

No, we have a "County" hospital that in a very short time will not be able to handle the population of this county.

I have said it before, if not now, when will we get another hospital?

 

Nice try, Thunder. "Unconscionable" is a pretty big word, so I know you are good with vocabulary, but you might want to check on the word "psychotic" as well. It is a legitimate medical term to describe patients suffering from psychoses, such as schizophrenia. These are the types of patients that are at Dominion Hospital, and therefore will be taking up one fourth of the inpatient beds at BRMC. (Actually, what is unconscionable is to pretend that the psychiatric inpatients are going to be a bunch of kids with anorexia and ADHD.) As to my use of the term "mental hospital", I believe this is accurate and will continue to refer to BRMC that way. Most hospitals tout their largest single service as their specialty. This one should as well.

Finally, I am not bigoted against people suffering from mental illnesses. I certainly acknowledge that they need treatment and I even briefly worked in a psychiatric hospital myself while in college. In fact, I am plenty happy that there are mental health facilities where people who need such treatment can get it. I just don't think we need to invite psychotics (yes that is the correct term) to live across the street from the Northern Playground.

 

Right on! I'd be all for the hospital if they dropped the mental services.

 

No need to check on psychotic, as I knew what it was when I wrote the message. And I’m sorry, but in context your use of the terminology can’t help but perpetuate the stigma attached to mental illness. While psychotic is a legitimate term, it is very specific and comes nowhere near describing the majority of mental illnesses. Do you know the full range of diagnosis for the children currently treated at Dominion? You can bet they are not all characterized as psychotic, and most likely include will include those with anorexia, depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar etc. Also, while you can choose to call it a mental hospital when those beds do not make up more than 25% of the total, let alone treat mental illness exclusively, that is still a misrepresentation of the facility.

As for the playground comment, aside from the fact that if you apply the statistics on mental illnesses from someplace like NIH to our neighborhood, you’ll find a whole host of people with mental illness already here, a more realistic, and statistically relevant concern is that you'll have people driving out of a business with a liquor license, literally right across from and by the playground, with not even a guard rail between them.

 

Thunder is my new best friend!

well said

 

You obviously have never needed these services for yourself or anyone in your family. My son suffers from severe depression, so I have experience with this. It is very heartbreaking to know your child needs help and you can't get it for him because there isn't room. Many hospitals do not provide day or outpatient services for adolescents. I spent many hours on the phone trying to get my son in a hospital for day treatment. I fully support a hospital in our area. Most of these kids are not bad kids out to harm anyone (usually it is the opposite - they hurt themselves), but they need help and the need is there for additional facilities, whether it is a medical or mental.

 

Good point, at least there is a hill there. However, it is a mental hospital and has always been billed as one. And as for stigma, that doesn't mean that they have to be here in Broadlands like some kind of affirmative action. Sorry you have brain problems but those of us with only minor neurosis don't need to be subjected to that. Make a nice funny farm out in the country with some animals and trees not near a residential area.

The BRMC only scaled down the number of beds b/c of the uproar. It was going to be more. You can't prove that there won't ever be a problem there just like I can't say that there will be. But you can prove that no mental hospital means no problem.

 

It seems to me that there are hundreds of "psychiatric" facilities throughout the country, most of which are located within close proximity to residential areas, and that very few newsworthy violent incidents are perpetrated on the surrounding communities by residents of these facilities.

The fear that some of you express about these facilities, you would think that BRMC will be inviting Mike Myers into Broadlands for a real-life production of "Halloween XVII."

I'm willing to bet that far more violence occurs in residential communities as a result of spillover of emergency room incidents than that which occurs from escaped psychiatric patients. By your logic, maybe BRMC shouldn't be allowed to have an emergency room, either???

 

No need, the man who killed the woman and stuffed her body in a dumpster in South Riding was a resident of the Broadlands - Overland Park.