Broadlands Hospital

Lee, buddy. Coast to Coast AM doesn't come on until 1 AM ET. You'll have to wait until George Noory (who replaced Art Bell) gets back on the air to spew more conspiracy theory.

 

Is THAT what THAT is??? An major airport! :scaredeyes:

I bet they have LOTS of lions and tigers and bears!

/I LOVE jet noise.

 

Hmmmmm.... I wonder.

http://www.nbc4.com/news/16584879/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

 

Here's my understanding:
Currently, Loudoun County does not charge for ambulance services (we pay for it through other taxes.) Fairfax County does charge. They have informed Loudoun County that they will begin charging Loudoun residents that they transport. They claim it is unfair treatment for Fairfax citizens to pay for their services while Loudoun County residents do not.

Although none of this has anything to do with the hospital.

 

Loudoun County F&R should look at their mutual aid agreement with Fairfax. This door swings both ways and if Loudoun County isn't "reciprocating" this policy...which is not unusual by any means...then they should.

You want to prevent people from driving across the county line to get "free" EMS services.

I've seen this in Richmond and other places. Happens all the time.

 

Didn't this "happen" to them before?


Playing by the Rules?
HCA pledges changes after some say they didn't know signatures would be used for letters to the editor in support of new Broadlands medical center.

By Jennifer Lesinski
Wednesday, June 11, 2008


It has been six years since Hospital Corporation of America officials first met with members of the Loudoun Healthcare Task Force, as well as other county and Leesburg officials about the possibility of building a hospital on a 58-acre site in Broadlands. Inova Health System, a nonprofit, already operates a hospital in Lansdowne, about five miles from the proposed site.

Since then, there have been public hearings, press conferences, protests and lawsuits, both in support of and in opposition to the land-use application that would permit the for-profit Broadlands Regional Medical Center to be built.

With the application granted new life by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year, after the previous board denied the request — which resulted in HCA suing the county — the application has become more than a land-use issue. It has become the subject of a public-relations blitz as the star attraction in newspaper ads, mailers and letter campaigns on both sides of the issue.

However, some of the tactics in this campaign, while they might be legal, skirt the line of ethics, according to a George Mason University professor.

Last week while verifying two letters to the editor in support of the Broadlands Regional Medical Center, The Connection discovered the supposed letter writers did not author the documents. Furthermore, while both people whose names appeared on the letters to the editor said they were supporters of the medical center, neither intended for their names to be published in the newspaper.

It turns out HCA — through a hired public relations firm it declines to name on the record — has been going door-to-door asking supporters to sign documents of support. Those documents are then being sent to newspapers and the Board of Supervisors; however, it is unclear if the signees are fully aware of how those documents would be used.



IN THE CASE of the two letters sent to The Connection, both signees said they were asked to sign a petition, but said they had never signed letters to the editor. The letters received, neither of which stated "To the Editor" at the top, included a statement of support for the proposed hospital and included various facts regarding the land-use application and HCA's justification for a hospital at that particular site. The letters had signatures, addresses and phone numbers of the supposed letter writers. The letters were copies of the originals. The Connection has also received several other letters that appear to be copies, also in support of the proposed hospital, which did contain the phrase "To the Editor."

After contacting HCA's public relations firm, The Connection was able to view the original documents, which did contain the person's signature, but nothing on the documents indicated they were intended to be letters to the editor. The two residents contacted said they did not know that the documents would be forwarded to newspapers.

Mark Foust, vice president of communications for HCA's Capital Division, said it was a miscommunication between individuals working on behalf of the Broadlands medical center and the residents whose signatures appeared on the documents sent in as letters to the editor.

"We're being completely transparent with our efforts with everyone in the community," Foust said. "First and foremost, we are going into the community to provide information and get feedback."

Foust pledges that now that the problem has been brought to their attention, changes will be made in the way signatures are obtained in the future.

"For people who are supporters, we have asked them to show that support, in a visible way, by signing a petition, letters to the editor or letters to the supervisors," Foust said. "This is something that has been going on constantly for more than a year. A majority of the people we talk to support this project, but were a silent majority."

Foust said the company collecting the signatures should have been clearer when asking supporters to sign prewritten documents of support as to what those documents would be used for.

"We appreciate they were willing to sign and are supporters of the hospital," Foust said. "We seek to be completely transparent."

Representatives of the firm hired to canvass the community on behalf of HCA declined to comment on the record.



THE METHOD being used by HCA to promote the new hospital is not new, said Edward Maibach, a professor in the Department of Communication and director of the Center for Climate Change Communication, both at George Mason University. Organizations, particularly nonprofits, often encourage supporters to write letters and provide a stock letter that the supporter can use word for word or personalize.

"Clearly, it is a relatively standard business practice for a corporation or nonprofit to enable people to write letters to their elected officials," Maibach said. "They provide stock letters and there's nothing wrong with that practice because there is no misrepresentation. Canvassing a neighborhood is good."

He said, however, the practice crosses the line of being ethically acceptable if whoever is doing the canvassing isn't upfront or misrepresents the documents.

Foust insists in this case, there was an inadvertent miscommunication and no misrepresentation was intended.

"The concept of a corporate interest defending itself by showing how much support it has happens all the time," Maibach said. "Often when it comes to a community, it's the people who oppose it that come out, are organized and are vocal. I'm sure HCA intended to canvass the neighborhood and show there is support."

Maibach, who teaches social marketing and communication campaigning courses, said he would teach the same techniques in his classes, as long as the students understood everything must be transparent.

"It's right out of an advocacy campaign textbook. The fundamental tactic is a form of democracy. But they have to play fair," Maibach said. "It's totally legitimate to do [use stock support documents], as long as they play by the rules."

Representatives of Inova and Concerned Citizens of Broadlands, both of which oppose the application, did not return calls inquiring about their outreach strategies.











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The proposed site plan for the Broadlands Regional Medical Center.


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Just goes to show you...there's a market for patients moving from Loudoun to Fairfax. We need more healthcare options in Loudoun and this wouldn't be an issue.

 

Ah yes... Donna. Don't forget to include that Inova utilizes the SAME tactics. Come on already! They're not that much different only that Inova has ALWAYS taken the "holier than thou" approach when they have to compete.

Just so there's no misunderstanding of what side I take in this argument: If Inova and HCA compete for my business, I win. The care will be better...my cost will decrease...I have better access to care. It's REALLY that simple. Heck...I've worked for health systems where the competing hospitals were directly across the street from each other! Time for Inova to grow up and recognize that having choices is the RIGHT thing to do for the people. It creates jobs. It provides better care. Knock it off already!

 

I think it is opening the door for problems for the HCA representative to ask to send the letter to a newspaper on their behalf. It can lead to exactly this type of problem.
Dumb thing to do.

It's kind of like Inova's group called "Concerned Citizens of Broadlands" that is represented by an attorney, who claims to have all these Broadlands residents and thousands of signatures, but refuses to show it to anyone, nor disclose who is paying her fees.

 

You state the care will be better, so are you saying the Dr.'s at one will not work at the other? How about the nurse's?

 

Let put it this way you can die in one hospital as easily as another.

What is funny is the two hospitals have the same MO and it only matters what you think because the health care is not one bit different between the two unless you are fighting one side or another then I would go to another country for health care.

 

I am pro-choice on this

 

Lee, this is pretty naive. You know not what you speak. The once the hospital gets built...then you can compare the care. Inova is a mid size health system. The care you get in one facility DOES NOT equal the care you get in the others. Just a statistical fact. That's like saying the people in the west end of the county are the same as the east end.

Competition has been proven...time and time again...to cause hospitals to improve or perish. Why? Because if I'm an administrator at Hospital A...and I want to steal your patients, I going to run an ad saying with statistical backing (hopefully) that my care is better than Hospital B. I'm going to recuit the better docs nurses and therapists. I'm going to create "centers of excellence". Basically...I'm going to steal each and every one of the paying patients from you that I can and leave you with the ones that can't pay. :scaredeyes:

Oh...I'm sorry. Did I state the truth?:scaredeyes: These hospitals are in business to make money. And no, they don't on patients that don't have insurance. :eww: Sure...they have to provide emergency care to anyone who hits the door...right up to the level of care the hospital can provide. Then...they dump them, to DC to Charlottesville and other teaching hospitals after the locals have up billed them and the patient is summarily infected with some nasty incureable infection like MRSA or VRE.

Costs will drop. Statistical fact!

Patients will have more choice to care. Statistical fact!

I've yet to hear ONE downside other than some cockamaimy (sic) notion that this is the wrong place to build the hospital. I'll say it again... HCA wouldn't be building it if it wasn't the right place to build the hospital. Why do you think Inova brought Loudoun County Hospital??? Because it's located in an increasing, affluent poplulation! DUH!:rolleyes3:

Would you build an office building in a place you couldn't rent it? If you say yes, then you're either lying to me or your're not of sound mind.

 

Buffettbassman If I was seriously sick first I would go to the Houston medical center or if it was immediate trauma I would be taken to the fairfax trauma center. And it is sad health care is only for the people that have insurance and or wealthy. Maybe that is the world order let the weak die if they cannot afford medical care and that is in the richest nation in the world. Sad very sad.

 

Dubai????

 

People don't have to die, Lee, if the richest people in the richest nation in the world shared their wealth with others. Isn't that what you want and what you are so sad about?

So here's a solution. The median average sales price of a home in the U.S. is just over $200,000. If you sold your home for $1.2 Million, you could buy another one for $400,000. You'd still be living in a home that is 2x what most people can afford (is that fair, too?). But you could take that extra $800,000 and provide health care for 100 families so that they wouldn't die. Are you willing to do your part?

 

Lee... come on... you can't really mean this. It may sound good on paper to further your agenda, but do you seriously not know that the Emergency Room (the most expensive place to receive care) will accept and treat everyone that walks through the door? You make it sound like they ask for your insurance ID card and if you can't produce one they send you and your severed arm back out the door. Please... if you're going to play in this sandbox get your facts straight or nobody will take you seriously, my friend. I know you're a bleeding heart liberal, and that's ok. Just get your facts straight, dear.

And I know you're all about universal healthcare because the government can SURELY do it better, right? Well, you don't know this because we haven't spoken in a while but my father just passed away in a V.A. hospital. People die there too.

 

@ Buffettbassman:
I think I made pretty much the same points 100 or so posts ago.
:dance:
'Round and round this thread goes, it seems. Heheh....

@ Lee and Sharse:
Sharse's right about Emergency rooms. Not only will they, in most cases it's illegal not to accept a patient unless it would be more harmful to do so (such as when ERs place themselves on ambulance bypass because they are too full to safely accept more patients).

In fact, many ER visitors will provide false information at check-in just to get medical care "for free" -- most hospitals end up eating these expenses and posting a loss because of what the industry terms "charity care."

Emergency health care, at least, is not only for the rich and insured.

@ Thunderchild:
Doctors primarily wield great bargaining power with their ability to decide whether or not to practice at a particular hospital. There may be cases where doctors will work at one hospital and not another.
Nurses may work at multiple hospitals if they're not locked into a noncompete clause in their contracts. I don't know many full-time nurses who have the time to do so, but it's usually not forbidden. But since it's not likely, there is a possibility that, overall, nursing care at one hospital is better than at another by virtue of the hospital doing a better job hiring and retaining the best nurses. Retention is a real issue in nursing, so the better hospitals are likely to retain the better nurses. Likewise for other equally important clinicians such as therapists, case managers, etc.