Broadlands Hospital

I have answered the question many times. If one property owner is hurt then that is one too many in this picticular case. They were their first. Your office argument does not fly.


But if it had to be built a video made to show how it affects anyone within visual distance of the site would be first.
I already said the hospital should be redesigned to be more compatible with the neighborhood and the reserve land should be reconfigured to make the buffer very deep all across broadlands blvd. Should not matter because you said they don't need it for their final build out anyway. An fund set up for potential future losses to the adjoining neighbors. And in a solid non breakable contract there could never be an helipad or any future expansion beyond their original vision.

I doubt they would do that, because they have every intension of expanding as much as possible into the future. So either they are liars and will not sign off on the above or they are honest and will sign off.

Lee j

 

Then why have YOU brought it up several times?!?!?!?! It is obvious you were trying to make an issue out of it but now you aren't cuz your "research" was wrong.

 

Get used to it as this is going to be the battle of 2008 in Loudoun. By the way Mrs Pea thanks for the link I did not know about that blog, but I am sure there will be many more coming on both sides!!!! Miss Pea I like you and you are certainly funny I really mean that. There are far more articulate and persuasive people then me on both sides of the argument. HA HA HA I am just for the people that were their first and a beautiful Loudoun, No matter where it is. The things I bring up about animation are easy enough to do these days and most of the major cities now have them or doing them.

Bad neighbor developers hate them because it exposes their selfish intentions without caring for their neighbors. What do they say a video or picture is worth a thousand words That sure helped to hurt Steven Snows campaign and certainly helped Stevens Miller, remember Pea, that exotic car scam from Snow during the election. Or the chicken stunt from afgm those videos and pictures are priceless. So lets do an animation of every single angle and view this hospital will effect and if they are telling the truth it will only help HCA if they are telling the truth. Further they can add animated helicopters and traffic with sound so you can see the traffic created and hear the sounds. from all those effected properties. Come on lets use all the tools we have to make certain this hospital will not cause any negative problems for their neighbors.



Lee j

 

It was only brought up because someone said this hospital was an public company. T8 you can constantly bring up silly stuff that does not make a bit of difference why or why not this hospital should be built. And I am not going to reply to arguments or statements anymore that have nothing or not much to do with the core reason of should this hospital be built on the piece of land or NOT. That is all there is to it.

Lee j

 

Who is responsible for this blog? Why don't they have their contact information on it? No byline? Interesting.

 

This sure shows HCA's compassion for this community...
sorry, for the length but the link wouldn't work.


This from the New York Times

Saturday, January 12, 2008
Health
• WORLD

A Town Loses Its Hospital, In the Name of Cost Control
•
By ERIK ECKHOLM,
Published: September 26, 1994
This resort town on a barrier island off the Florida Panhandle enjoys silken beaches, good fishing and a boom in real estate. What Destin does not have these days, to the outrage and despair of many residents, is its own hospital.

Last May the country's largest hospital chain, which had recently acquired the eight-year-old Destin Hospital, closed most of it in the name of efficiency. The only part left open was the emergency room, which, lacking the support of an intensive-care unit and ready surgeons, could not treat many life-threatening conditions. As of now, the hospital is completely closed.

Officials of the company, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, noted that fewer than one-third of the hospital's 50 beds had been filled on average and that two other hospitals it owned were only about 15 miles away.

"We simply can't have a hospital on every corner," David T. Vandewater, chief operating officer of Columbia, said in a recent interview. "We just can't afford it."
But what Mr. Vandewater described as a sensible economic step created an uproar in Destin, where travel to the other hospitals can take as long as 45 minutes in the tourist season when the roads are crowded. People here see the hospital's closing as a threat to their health and prosperity, and as a callous move by a company that had gained a stranglehold on the medical market here.

"This company has basically lost our respect," said Charles Clary Jr., an architect and City Council member in Destin. "The community here doesn't trust them anymore to work for our good."
Even without strong direction from Washington, the nation's health care is being transformed by market forces and the search for lower costs. In the abstract, everyone agrees that waste must be wrung from a bloated system.

But as the conflict here shows, efficiency as defined in the emerging medical marketplace does not always square with the deeply felt needs of communities. And sometimes, unavoidably, it can mean longer drives for medical care, longer waits and even medical risks.
"Destin is a microcosm of what you're going to see around the country," said Douglas Cook, director of Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, which supports the town's effort to regain a hospital."We were caught between what we feel is a legitimate need of a community and what a corporation is willing to do if it owns a hospital."

Painful hospital closings are by no means confined to the for-profit chains. As patients' hospital stays have shortened and payers -- Federal and private -- insist on lower prices, hundreds of hospitals have already shut down or merged with neighbors in recent years, especially in rural areas and small towns.
But Columbia, based in Louisville, Ky., has been a highly visible leader in bringing hard-nosed corporate tactics to the once-staid world of medicine: buying hospitals, closing weak ones, zealously competing for doctors and their patients. The company, after several recent mergers, owns 195 hospitals and 125 outpatient surgery centers. It says its size brings economies of scale, allowing quality care at lower prices. Indeed, Columbia describes itself as a grass-roots leader in the national overhaul of health care.

In Florida alone, Columbia has bought 45 hospitals, accounting for one-third of the state's hospital beds; it is now the state's largest private employer.
Columbia officials said they were surprised by the outcry in Destin, which they called the worst in their experience of numerous hospital closings. They said the attacks reflected nervous real estate interests more than legitimate health concerns. And they noted that Gov. Lawton Chiles has crusaded for leaner health care, but that now, immersed in a tough fight for re-election, has supported Destin's drive to reopen the hospital.

Dan Moen, president of Columbia's Florida Group, said that Destin residents still lived within 20 minutes of two other hospitals, also usually half-empty -- a 247-bed one in Fort Walton Beach and a 75-bed one in Niceville.
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But Destin believes it has a strong claim. Not only are many residents and visitors are elderly, but each summer also sees serious water and road accidents. In addition, during high season, the roads to the mainland become so crowded that the drive to the other hospitals can take twice as long as it does at other times.
Destin's population is about 15,000 "on a Wednesday," as the city manager put it, and growing fast. That number jumps by several thousand in the winter as Northern retirees move in, and it doubles in the summer as vacationers come for the white sand beaches and emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The closing of Destin Hospital has left residents like Martha Coxe, 56, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, scared. Living 10 minutes from the hospital had provided security and convenience.
"This has been a real upheaval for the community," Ms. Coxe said, describing her own feeling as desperate. "This is an added stress for me on top of my respiratory problem. It's just greed on the company's part."
Columbia's actions also seem to have wounded civic pride. The town has a sense of itself as independent, with bright prospects symbolized by several giant cranes along the shoreline, each heralding yet another high-rise condominium. "This community is large and thriving," said Philip G. Cook, the Destin city manager, "and we need a small hospital."
City leaders attributed the hospital's low occupancy and financial losses, reported by the company as $100,000 a month, in part to manipulation by Columbia and the previous owner, another private chain. They argued that Destin was treated merely as a feeder to other hospitals, that it never nurtured a corps of doctors who would bring in patients and that it did little marketing. They said a small hospital here should be able to make ends meet, a contention supported by outside consultants.

The company contends that the outcry has been driven by business considerations. "This didn't come down to a health care issue," Mr. Vandewater said. "It was about keeping property values up."

Destin leaders do worry that the loss of the hospital will deter migrants like John Rossi, a 62-year-old retiree from the Air Force who moved here last winter with his father. "I bought a home right here because the hospital was close by," Mr. Rossi said.
"This is disastrous," he said of the shutdown, noting the preponderance of elderly people in his neighborhood.
Dewey Destin, a commercial fisherman and City Council member, acknowledged that worry about the impact on business had figured in the outcry. But he added: "I have kids myself, and I've talked to many parents with young children and to old people who've lived here a long time. They're really scared that in an emergency they can't get in a car to get stabilized within 10 minutes or so."
Local doctors say the medical need is real. "I've personally taken care of a few patients who probably would not have survived the ambulance ride to Fort Walton Beach," said Dr. Travis Bolton Jr., an internist at a clinic next to the closed hospital.
Columbia officials wanted to retain the hospital's state license and certificate of need, arguing that the company might reopen beds some day as the population grew. Keeping the license would also freeze out potential competitors, since the state would not grant a new certificate in this overbuilt county. Throughout Florida, in fact, hospital occupancy averages only about 50 percent.
But in an agreement forced on it by the state last month, Columbia agreed to sell the hospital by Dec. 31 or lose the license and certificate.
Originally, the company said it would keep open an emergency room half-time. When the community protested, it said it would maintain the emergency room round the clock, as well as two inpatient beds.
Still, sicker patients who might need hospital admission were routinely directed elsewhere, and local doctors said that, without the backup of a hospital, the emergency room was little more than a walk-in clinic.

"That was an emergency room in name only," said Dr. George Novak, a plastic surgeon in Destin. "In my opinion, it was just an attempt to keep competition away from here."

In June, the City Council sued both Columbia and the state, arguing that the company had violated the licensing rules by no longer operating a hospital. In addition, thousands of residents signed a petition calling for reopening the hospital, and while campaigning in Destin, Governor Chiles, a Democrat, promised to try to help the town retain a hospital.
Then came a deadly incident on Aug. 3. A man with severe internal injuries from a jet-ski accident was taken to Destin Hospital for helicopter evacuation to a major trauma center. Ambulance workers said they had asked to bring the man into the emergency room for help in the minutes while waiting for the helicopter but were refused entrance. The man later died.
The hospital denies that it refused the man entrance, and while exactly what happened outside the hospital that day remains in dispute, doctors say it did not affect the patient's outcome. Nonetheless, the incident took on mythic dimensions for the town, proving in citizens' minds the vital need for a local hospital.
After a quick investigation, the state health care agency sought to revoke Columbia's Destin license on the ground that it was not operating a genuine hospital.

In an Aug. 30 settlement with the state, the company agreed to make a good-faith effort to sell Destin Hospital, along with its certificate of need. In the meantime, the hospital has been completely closed.
So now, whether Destin can sustain a small hospital will be tested in the marketplace. The city's attorneys say that nearly a dozen private hospital companies have inquired about a possible purchase. Destin is also considering public ownership as a last resort.
The outcry has not changed Columbia officials' views; they say the shutdown of underused hospitals is both desirable and unstoppable. "It's going to happen again and again around the country," Mr. Moen said.
Councilman Destin, whose ancestors settled the area in the early 19th century, agreed that the trend might be unstoppable.
"That's the problem with the health care we're moving toward in this country," he said. "The bottom line's going to be profit rather than community welfare."

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Do you mean to imply that HCA will somehow leave Broadlands if they open a hospital here, or that they are just an evil, rotten company compared to yours?

1. Would iNova keep its doors open if "fewer than one third of its beds" were being filled?

2. We used to vacation in Destin. It's a small resort town and if they don't even have enough demand to fill a third of the beds, there shouldn't be a hospital there.

3. Are you equating the town of Destin with Ashburn and our surrounding area? There's no comparison. And if BRMC only fills a third of its beds, then HCA made a costly mistake and the hospital should be shut down.

4. This isn't a church they are running. They don't owe any "compassion" to the community when the community doesn't need a hospital. Boo hoo. Go to any community and you can find them complaining about something (you know, like a big bad hospital bringing criminals, mental patients, helicopter crashes, etc. into a residential neighborhood).

5. I have no doubt that HCA is a profit-driven company who makes decisions best for its shareholders. That's what companies do. And I don't expect them to be a good neighbor. Neither do I assume iNova, AOL or any other company are saints.

Donna, you have made some good, legitimate points in other posts. But I still find it unseemly for you to attack a competitor so openly. I have no doubt that if HCA folks wanted to find dirt on your company, it probably wouldn't be too hard to do.

Beside that, this story is irrelvant.

 

This is probably the worst post that I have read, and my response couldn't be more serious.

Every company is run by humans, and every human should have compassion. Without compassion, we are animals!

We are not talking about a brokerage house, we are talking about a hospital. We are talking about people's lives and health.

I think that it is reprehensible that you expect companies to act only based upon profit, without a thought for compassion.

 

Proof, please? I'm still waiting from PROOF from SOMEONE in the anti-Hospital camp to show that HCA will PURPOSELY SURPASS its future build-out plans and turn into a creeping monster of a hospital organization intent on destroying the Broadlands community....

Gads, you naysayers make it sound like some B-grade horror. I'm always tempted to throw in with the other camp for spite....

 

Um, I don't think this is worse than people intentionally spreading false fears and misinformation. According to those who believe in Darwinian evolution, we are animals. So which is it?!

Spare me the melodrama. They are filling a third of the beds in small town. There are two hospitals 15 miles away. Are you outraged that there are not hospitals within fifteen miles of tens of thousands of communities in this country? Why aren't you picketing and demanding that the government build hospitals in poor communities? I mean, these are people's lives and health. I'm tired of people acting like they care more than others.

Did I say that I expect companies to companies to act ONLY based on profit with no thought for compassion? No. That's your overly emotional, irrational take. I was making the point that HCA is no different than most overy company, whose primary responsibility is to their shareholders. It is not the responsibility of businesses and government to be compassionate--that's what individuals, churches and other groups do. My company is extremely compassionate, but that's because it's MY company.

 

Hey Silence when do you plan to move so you can find that new paradise Apparently many people and things around here bother you. And you don't plan to stick around like many of us do here. So what is your point???????? At least many of us here have an interest in our community for the long term not for just a couple of years. You sure love to attack people when you don't like what they say And many of us have met in person at HH and been to each others homes, even if we don't agree with each other at least we still respect each others opinions. THe Pea and Cliff and T8 and now the very quiet moderators these days Steve and Eric, Redon1 and Sharse and many others have and oops KaosDad and afgm and Sunny and many many more at least have met at one time or another for a drink or two just to put aside our differences and get to know one another. And I have no clue why I am saying this it is just wasting valuable bandwidth with . But there will come a time when there will be a decision if this hospital will be built or not. And most of what we say on these boards is most likely not going to have much of an effect on that decision. It will be a community collective that eventually will win out one way or another.

Lee j

 

Yay, another blog with unidentified speakers posting unsupported claims. And this one set up on a free site so all it costs is a few minutes to type the diatribes and watch the flames rise.

Very classy.

Hooray for anonymity.


Edit:
---
(Says the person who posts anonymously. Heh. Shot myself in the foot this time, didn't I.)

 

Speaking on anonymity and I am the only one who saw a parallel here.

...isn’t it interesting in a recent no brmc hospital email - the author mentions "there will be a new website" as a go to place and in this thread the same author chastised those who continue to be anonymous (something about being a coward…mature conversation), yet both the "new website" and new blog are both anonymous.

Double standard or am I reading too much into it?

The new blog is as classy as a cell phone ringing during a wedding and filled with so much drama it made me want to take a midol for the blogger

 

Lee, do you even possess a square inch of self-awareness?! WHO continually posts every single negative story they can find on flex buildings, traffic, the economy, the stock market, foreclosures, the hospital (remember, you are ANTI-hospital!) and every topic there is? That would be you. That's why you are known as Mr. Negative!

I am relentlessly positive and greatly enjoy my life here. I get to work from home with my wife and son, rarely have to battle traffic and lead a meaningful life helping families across the country. Can't get any better than that. We may be here for a few more years, sorry to tell you.

 

Then why do you blabber endlessly?

 

Thepea, I certainly hope that you are not insinuating that because of my recent post on people who hide behind anonymity that the recent anti BRMC blog is mine, because it is not....Good try thou...and you might want to re-read that thread as I never called any one hiding behind an anonymous name a coward...way to spin...

 

Donna - that's right you used a quote, my mistake -LOL touchy touchy

For the record I dont spin...that's what you get paid to do for Inova - either way you swing it Donna you are tainted on this subject.

Frankly you've abused your power on the HOA board when you sent out letters to homeowners on HOA letterhead (without the premission or support of the hoa) concering the Anti-BRMC hospital, mislead homeowners with doctored photos of needles, told people that your life has been threatened etc..so much drama for poor Donna. Phulease!. Should I go on?

The 08 elections are coming up and your past actions are going to haunt you. I dont want an HOA board member that abused their power to represent me.

Also you may want to do a much better job when you or your group regs a doman-name...at least use some firm like go-daddy or domain clearing house, its alittle harder to trace who actually owns the site.

 

I love when people use reasoning like this.

"And when was the last time you saw a car driving the speed limit trying to get to the emergency room?? " From the anti-hospital blog.

Speeding? Doesnt that already exist?

 

Donna is right. She called them "uncourageous," which is different. Donna, do you know who is behind that particular blog? I think there are legitimate reasons to oppose the hospital, but these fear tactics and misinformation have the opposite effect for me.

Also, when you get a chance, could you answer my questions from your recent post about the hospital in Destin? Thank you.

 

Since Silence likes negativity How about this scenario.

The greenway and it's unmanned toll booths could create a situation where someone comes from the west and of course the overpriced toll road is about the only way to this hospital from the West. I could see a situation that someone gets on the toll road with an emergency person in their car and can not get off the road because the gate is down no credit card and the hurt person dies in the car trying to get thru the closed gate.

Could this hospital being built only for the affluent in western county that can get thru the unmanned closed gates or do the less affluent have to take the long ways around which is really difficult to get to this hospital unless you take the toll road from the west. The toll road Could be a death trap for many. Or prolong vital care if you are not rich enough to afford an credit card or transponder or just plain forget their wallet and have no transponder. hmmmm the greed-way could end up being called the death-way as well.

Lee j