Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993 TAG: 9308050296
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
A competing application by Radford Community Hospital, to build a cancer treatment center in Christiansburg, also was denied.
Both hospitals' applications for certificates of need were turned down Tuesday by Virginia Commissioner of Health Robert Stroube.
Raymond O. Perry, a state Department of Health hearing officer who heard testimony on the applications this spring, said Lewis-Gale's proposal would add to "an existing excess" of radiation equipment.
He said the equipment can meet the needs of Roanoke-area patients for the near future, and the project would increase the costs of therapy without offering a health benefit, he said.
Radford Community had proposed building a $3.18 million free-standing treatment center. The proposed center would offer radiation therapy, a service not available in the New River Valley. 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 to 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 offered only a marginal improvement in the access of radiation therapy to a small number of Southwest Virginia patients.
Radford Community and Lewis-Gale can appeal Stroube's ruling to the courts.
The denials could open a door for Pulaski Community Hospital, which has its own application pending for a cancer-treatment center.
Radford also has another application pending for the center in the same application round that Pulaski Community entered.
"We're proceeding ahead and hope in the next round we'll be successful," said Susan Lockwood, a Radford spokeswoman. Pulaski administrators could not be reached.
A 30-day delay in consideration of both applications has been recommended. If it's granted, a decision by Stroube is expected around Dec. 1, said Ken Cook, director of the regional agency that reviews applications before they go to Richmond.
by CNB