HCA Seeks to Deny Citizens Access to Healthcare

See the story below from today's Post. The HOA's good pals at HCA have just filed a request with the state asking for the DENIAL of life-saving cardiac catherization services to ALL of Loudoun County residents. In the letter, HCA has the nerve to say that we should just drive to Reston, Arlington, and Fairfax if we're dying of coroonary artery disease!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38224-2004Apr23?language=printer

 

The story seems to say that HCA want LCH's cardiac care denied. If that's true then HCA needs to go. To play this kind of game with people's lives is unacceptable!

 

Reads like an editorial, not a news story. Only one side is heard from. I am certain there is two sides to the debate. I don't read much into this.

 

Seems pretty obvious to me. Deny LCH a chance to grow, force citizens to go to Reston (HCA), BRMC(HCA) or Inova. This is a business tactic. The problem is that healthcare affects real people and not just money. This was is an example of what people were afeaid of years ago when healthcare started to get privatized and insurance became king.

 

Maybe there is another way to look at this. Did LHC apply for cardiac catheterization services BECAUSE of HCA? If so, then competition has already had a positive effect whether the HCA hopsital is approved or not.

 

I find it ironic that HCA, who's mantra has been "Loudoun needs more healthcare choices", is trying to deny Loudoun residents access to coronary care.

 

Good point Coop, I don't think we are hearing everything associated with this issue.

 

I find it interesting that the anti-BRMC folks are up in arms about this, when LCH has been lobbying for years to keep competitive health care choices out of our reach. I'm not saying that what HCA is doing is justified, I'm just noting the double standard.

 

Regardless of where people stand on the HCA issue, I think that everyone can agree that what HCA has done (as described in the Post article) is a step below evil. There is a big difference between what Loundoun Hospital is doing (trying to get another hospital built in a logical place--not just a few miles from a virtually new hospital) and what HCA is doing (essentially saying that people with heart disease can just die or go to their hospitals in Arlington or elsewhere).

When we think about what kind of neighbor we want, do we want a healthcare provider like HCA that does something so unethical as to oppose a measure that will help everyone in the Broadlands if we ever are as unfortunate enough to have heart trouble?

 

No, I'm not. Healthcare in England and Canada is behind us. Most things are good in moderation and harmfull in the extremes. Privatized healthcare is no exception. When done with compassion and good fiscal responsibility it is great. When done with only the regard for the bottom line it is bordering on evil. There is such as thing as ethics in business. I think any side that uses patients as a pawn in the chess game that is going on here is unethical. Everything a hospital does should be for the good of its constituents NOT to make money, or maintain some kind of monopoly.

That said, the BRMC was put in broadlands because we are a rich community. The average income here is $120K which is way above the rest of the country.

Here is what the BRMC will offer:

• 24-hour emergency room with a board-certified pediatrician
• Labor and Delivery Services
• Surgery and recovery
• Medical conditions (i.e. cancer, diabetes and kidney care)
• Cardiac care - cardiac catheterization
• Diagnostics and advanced interventional techniques
• Children and adolescents mental health diagnosis and treatment
• Intensive Care Services
• Surgical Services
• Medical/Surgical Acute Nursing Care
• Medical-Telemetry Unit
• Ventilator Services
• Diagnostic Imaging Services
• Minor Procedure Services
• Laboratory Services
• Outpatient Services
• Physical Therapy Services
• Pharmacy

Note "Cardiac care - cardiac catheterization". Would this by why they don't want LHC to have it?

This is a great list. I'd probably got to BRMC over LCH just b/c it's new and the tech is going to be current. It's just that I don't trust HCA. Where is the mental health in that list? Their actions have seemed heavy handed and bordering on unethical. When will HCA turn on us?

If I had the power to make the decision I'd build the BRMC near Worldcomm and have the plan changed to zone that land for smaller commercial or as greenspace such as a park. It can be done. If LHC can change the comprehensive plan then that land can be rezoned!

 

I don't justify or excuse HCA's action in this matter. But, I find it disingenuous for anti-BRMC people to turn a blind eye to LCH's actions just because they agree with LCH's position.

The differences between the actions of HCA and LCH are not that severe. We are talking about business decisions here. HCA seems to think LCH's proposal will jeopardize BRMC; LCH doesn't want to have to compete with another hospital for health care services.

There is lots of criticism to go around -- on BOTH sides of the issue.

 

I agree! I'm not anti BRMC. I'm anti- bad planning, anti- unethical business practices! If BRMC and LCH run this dirty little war the way it's been going how long is it going to take before either hospital does something against the community, like incinerating on premises, sudden inclusion of adult mental, not accepting patients w/o insurance, dropping maternity as soon as it's built, dropping philanthropy as soon as it's built. As far as I know there are no checks in place. A new state of the art hospital is a good thing! How well does LCH keep up w/ technology? Can LCH handle severe trauma w/o sending patients to Inova? I don't buy that they sent that kid out b/c of to many people showing up. Inova is only 20 minutes away.

 

You may not but others here that support the hospital do turn a blind eye to their past criminal activity.

 

Mearen, I agree with you. My prediction is that one of two things will happen:

(1) The pro-HCA members of this forum AND the HOA represenatives will defend anything and everything HCA does -- even when HCA does something as low and under-handed as DENYING the members of this community access to medically-necessary treatments for heart problems.

(2) The pro-HCA members of this forum AND the HOA represenatives will not even respond because they know that there is no possible defense of HCA's wretched, abominable, loathsome attempt to harm Broadlands residents.

 

Wow, chris. You are really out there on a limb. And I would have guessed that the pro-BRMC folks would suddenly rise up against HCA and decide that there is no need for another hospital in Loudoun County.

And does LCH have a defense for their "wretched, abominable, loathsome attempt to harm Broadlands residents" by lobbying against a health care facility that would help to relieve the health care burden that Broadlands residents suffer from?

 

Pats: A request--please keep your comments on topic. This thread is for the purpose of discussing HCA's effort to deny Broadlands residents access to critical heart care services. I would hate to have yet another thread shut down because people cannot stay on topic. If you have other off-topic questions for me or others, please feel free to start a new thread.

 

Please.

I guess I didn't read the title of the thread closely enough. I saw "...Seeks to Deny Citizens Access to Healthcare" and I immediately thought of LCH. My bad.

I didn't realize you favored such narrow construction of the written text. You must be a strong proponent of textualism with regards to the constitution and the like. I never would have figured you for a Scalia/Thomas fan. But, of course, this is a topic for another thread...

 

I thought Pats_fan was within scope of the topic, since his response was directly related to what you said about HCA. The last thing this forum needs is tighter rules on this. I know others have attempted to hijack your threads but I don't believe this is the case right now.

 

I'm a new resident and a new mom of a beautiful baby boy who happens to have a heart defect. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read the article in the Washington Post this weekend. I can think of a few things that I would like to tell the HCA executives face to face. They all must be cruel, heartless "robots".

When I first learned about the hospital plans, I was undecided. While my family is lucky enough to be fairly far enough away from where the Homeowners Association has proposed to build the hospital, I was a nurse before I got married and can understand not wanting to have any hospital, especially a psychiatric hospital, in the community.

But now, I cannot understand how anyone in the Broadlands could support letting HCA force all of the people in the area to drive to their other hospitals in Arlington and the other close-in neighborhoods around DC to be treated. If they think that we all can drive into downtown DC when we need a hospital, why would they want to build a new hospital here in the first place?

I'd like to hear from the supporters of the hospital about why they are supporting a group that wants kids like my little boy to be denied the healthcare that they need.

 

HCA doesn't want you to drive to DC either. They want you to get your cardiac cath lab services at the Broadlands Regional Medical Center, not Loudoun Hospital Center.

This move implies to me that HCA admits that there is not enough need to support two hospitals in a nearby location, at least as far as cardiac care is concerned.

--Joy