Broadlands Hospital

Nice to hear. If you, Terrabook, and HCA win out, I am sure you will blame anything bad on something else... Whatever you have to do to sleep at night, I guess.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

While I am still on the fence about the hospital issue, I must say that this finger pointing at Cliff about patients hurting one of us is outrageous.

killer bee - can we all blame you if the hospital gets rejected and an office park get built and a disgruntled employee goes on a shooting spree? will you be able to sleep?? c'mon....

God forbid any of this happens in the Broadlands, but lets not point fingers at one another - especially a member of the board that WE elected.

Show us some reports and facts that prove areas around hospitals have significantly more crime as compared to a typical office park.

 

Does anyone out there know if Loudoun Hospital ever looked into expanding further west in the county, beyond Leesburg?

 

Facts? This is a simple as 2+2=4. If you bring the mentally unstable into our community, then there is a chance that something could go (horribly) wrong. Call me crazy, but I don't like taking chances with our kids lives.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

Here we go again with the hyperbolic rhetoric. From what I have seen, the mental services portion of HCA's original plan never proposed having "mentally unstable" people in our community! The mental health services would have been for eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and other 'every day' mental health issues that, statistically speaking, are already present</u> within any</u> large community. To echo others in this forum, can we PLEASE</u> end the scare tactics and focus on facts?

 

JT: Re-read my message. It is not scare tactics. It is just reality. I do not like to gamble with safety (mine, yours, or that of our neighbors!), and I am horrified when others are willing to take risks when lives are at stake.

Also, you need to realize that hosptials BY LAW cannot discriminate on treatment, regardless of HCA's reported promises and plans. There is a federal law called EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act). For information (again, information not scare tactics), go to http://www.emtala.com. EMTALA stipulates that hospitals must, in general, stabilize and treat patients who present in their facilities. So, if you get an HCA hospital, which seems to be your wish, you will have to deal with this element in our community.

I am sorry that you would label the truth a scare tactic. Sometimes people are scared to confront the reality of their actions. I am just pointing our what supporting this hospital ACTUALLY means. I am saddened to see the risks people are willing to take with the safety of others.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

I think jtarnow has it right, and based on your concern for safety killer_bee, you should probably stay inside.

What it ACTUALLY means - a very conservative estimate, based only on one person for each of the households settled (approx. 2,200) in Broadlands, could have you running into the following people in the neighborhood:

209 with a depressive disorder
26 with bipolar
24 schizophrenics
293 with an anxiety disorder (Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias (social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobia)

Not including:
ADHD - 4.1 % of youths 9-17
Anorexia or bulimia .5 to 4.2% of females

And the general fact that an estimated 22.1 percent of Americans ages 18 and older—(about 484 in this example)—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

Here's the link for the facts I used:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm

Even more important, I think everyone talking about the "mentally unstable" or "imbalanced" or "bad element", or other negative terminology for mental illness might benefit from the following site:
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/stigma/default.asp

From their opening page...
Know me as a person not by my mental illness
We are your friends, neighbors, and family.
We improve and recover.
We are major contributors to American life.
We deserve dignity and respect

 

TRB: Your data are scary enough, so can you tell me WHY you want to increase the number by having a psychiatric ward across the street from Broadland homes???

As I said before, nobody is truly worried about a mildly depressive mom or a teen who has the blues about who to go to the prom with. Hospitals cannot turn away the criminally insane! They must treat them. Just read EMTALA. I gave the links above.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

Please try to attend the HCA/HSA meeting being held Monday, September 8, at 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hunt High School. ( the school is just outside of Leesburg). It is vital to show the decision makers we are still against HCA's plan. You can sign up to speak to the HSA (health Systems Agency) panel. This might be our last/best opportunity to speak publicly. Keep in mind these members send their recommendations down to Richmond for the final decsison.

 

Killer_Bee-
Your ignorance is astounding. I would ask that you please make even a MINIMAL attempt to get ANY facts that support your inflamatory, irrational, and utterly false statements.
Criminally insane!?!?! This hospital will not be licensed for, and cannot deal with, the criminally insane and DO NOT treat them. There are two state hospital facilities that deal with the "criminally insane". But hey, it is a free country and you can say what you want. Just don't yell "FIRE" in a movie theatre.
Also, you completely miss TRB's point: People with these conditions SURROUND YOU right now, and these are the types of conditions primarily treated at Dominion Hospital. I know....I've visited there and the doctors have attended numerous meetings here in Broadlands and spoken to numerous residents here about this issue.
Maybe with the hospital here, your friends and neighbors will get treatment and not be the evil threat you want us to believe they are.
Cliff

 

VACLIFF, will you please, please, please read the text of the federal EMTALA regulations (wich require hospitals to treat all patients)? My gosh! Is that too much to ask from someone who rants and raves about wanting people to post only the "facts"?

EMTALA clearly states that a hospital MUST TREAT ANY PERSON WHO WALKS IN ITS DOORS!

I will not stoop to mud-slinging by labeling you ignorant as you have done to me. That is beneath me. You ask for people to be respectful in this forum, and then you really show your true colors.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

The meeting is at HERITAGE HIGH SCHOOL and that school is located on
Evergreen Mill Road SE it is very easy to get to. If you need directions, call the school at 669-1400

 

Killer_Bee-
I did not mean to imply you were an ignorant person. If you took it as a personal insult, I truly apologize. I used the word ignorance to imply "lack of knowledge" regarding that post. I'm aware of the quidelines, and I am aware of requirements to treat people at hospitals. If someone is brought in, they would be treated and stabilized. If criminal activity was involved, they are handled with appropriate security measures (sheriff escort, lock down, etc.)
They are not dumped off, left alone, then kicked out the door into the community as has been implied.
If someone was "criminally insane" they would be removed from the facility under the appropriate security measures and moved to a state facility. Can you point to ONE case at any of the hospitals around here where residents were put at risk from someone at the hospital?
I again apologize for insulting you. I will try to do another reread of my posts before submitting them and try to use words more carefully.
Cliff

 

Killer_Bee,

OK, I read the EMTALA. The EMTALA deals with emergency care for medical patients, not mental patients, so what's your point with reading the EMTALA?

In fact if you search the www.cms.hhs.gov website for EMTALA, you'll find an EMTALA Update presentation that states there is "nothing specific in regulations" for "psychiatric patients."

So, what's the fact?

 

GCyr: You may not be a healthcare professional, so I can see your confusion. Under EMTALA, if a hospital offers psychiatric services, it must stabilize/treat ANY patient who presents with a psychiatric condition/emergency. Also, when the presentation that you referred to states "nothing specific in regulations for psychiatric patients," it means that there are no special exceptions for treating psychiatric patients. So, your beloved proposed hospital would need to treat ANY psychiatric patient who showed up!


killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

I don't know the in's and out's of the EMTALA, although as an attorney I will soon look it up. The point is that treating a 'mental patient' who shows up now and then is FAR different from what the anti-hospital group has been portraying as a full-scale "psycho ward" (and I use that somewhat offensive term reluctantly) with patients who might "escape" into our pristine neighborhood. These are the scare tactics that have characterized the anti-hospital propaganda, and which I decry.

 

VACLIFF: Thank you.

killer_bee in broadands, ashburn, virginia

 

Is that a fact or your assumpition? I would agree that anyone with a medical health condition would have to be treated, with or without a mental condition.

If I might ask, what is your position as a healthcare professional?

 

I have not read all about the EMTALA law mentioned above (it looked it was over 500 ages--who has time?!?), but I had a nice long talk last night with a girlfriend from college who is now a nurse at Riverside Hospital in Newport News (VA).

I asked her if hospitals had to treat patients (including psychiatric patients) who just walked in. She said YES! Then she said, "What are we supposed to say? "You're crazy, go somewhere else?" She said that hospitals have a legal (and ethical) responsibility to treat anyone who shows up with a health-related emergency--medical, psychiatric, etc.

 

Stephanie & Killer_Bee,

I found the following definition in section 489.24(b) of the EMTALA reg:

"Emergency medical condition means--
(i) A medical condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain, psychiatric disturbances</u> and/or symptoms of substance abuse) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in--..." [lists the health consequences]

So, I stand corrected.

Not that I think anything about this definition will change, but CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) is scheduled to publish its long-awaited revisions to EMTALA regulations in the Federal Register September 9, 2003.