Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993 TAG: 9308050221
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
A competing application by Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem, which wanted to buy a second machine for radiation therapy treatments, also was denied.
Both hospitals' applications for certificates of need were turned down Tuesday by Virginia Commissioner of Health Robert Stroube.
The denials could open a door for Pulaski Community Hospital, which has its own application pending for a cancer-treatment center.
Radford Community had proposed building a $3.18 million free-standing treatment center on Arbor Drive in the Market Place Shopping Center. The proposed center would offer radiation therapy, a service not available in the New River Valley.
Stroube based his denial of Radford's application on the recommendation of Raymond O. Perry, a state Department of Health hearing officer who heard testimony on the Radford and Lewis-Gale applications this spring.
Perry said Radford had not demonstrated a public need for the project.
The center could succeed only if it could take radiation therapy patients away from Lewis-Gale or Roanoke Memorial hospitals, which are only 28-35 minutes away, Perry said. That would raise the cost of therapy for all patients in the region, he said.
Additionally, Perry said the project offers only a marginal improvement in the access of radiation therapy to a small number of Southwest Virginia patients.
Perry said Lewis-Gale's proposal to install a second radiation machine would add to "an existing excess" of radiation equipment, which can meet the needs of Roanoke-area patients for the near future. The project would increase the costs of therapy without offering a health benefit, he said.
Administrators from Radford Community and Lewis-Gale could not be reached to see if they planned to appeal Stroube's ruling to the courts.
Radford, however, has another application pending for the center in the same application round that Pulaski Community's application also is entered.
"We're proceeding ahead and hope in the next round we'll be successful," Susan Lockwood, a Radford spokeswoman, said. Pulaski administrators could not be reached.
A 30-day delay in consideration of both applications has been recommended and, if it's granted, a decision by Stroube could be expected around Dec. 1, said Ken Cook, director of the regional agency that reviews applications before they go to Richmond.
by CNB