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Need for cancer centers debated
A decision is not expected until January on proposals to build three cancer treatment centers in the region
Date published: 10/25/2008
BY JIM HALL Backers of three proposed cancer treatment centers for the region will probably have to wait until next year for the state's decision. Dr. Karen Remley, the state health commissioner, has until Jan. 30 to make a decision on the projects. Her ruling could be delayed an additional 25 days if she needs more time. MediCorp Health System, HCA Inc. and Culpeper Regional Hospital want to spend a combined $25 million to build cancer centers and purchase linear accelerators and other specialty equipment. All three centers received endorsements from a regional health planning group in Culpeper in August. Since then, however, two of them have run into opposition. A state Health Department analyst last month recommended that the MediCorp and HCA projects be denied, calling them "unnecessary expenditures on unneeded services." And Dr. Christopher Walsh, the medical director at the Mid-Rivers Cancer Center in Montross, told the state that he fears that the MediCorp and HCA projects will draw patients from King George and Essex counties and hurt his 3-year-old center. "We operate on a very slim margin," Walsh said yesterday. "We're probably the least busy of all the centers. We would be the most vulnerable to the loss of the referral base." MediCorp, HCA and Culpeper seek state permits, called "certificates of public need," to build the centers. MediCorp wants to place its center at its new Stafford Hospital Center on U.S. 1. HCA would build its center at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, its planned hospital near Massaponax. The Culpeper center would be located adjacent to the hospital. Leonard Varmette, the state analyst, recommended to Remley that she approve the Culpeper project, since the Culpeper area has no radiation therapy centers. Cancer patients there must travel at least an hour for their treatments. But Varmette said patients in the Fredericksburg area can receive treatments at the Cancer Center of Virginia, a MediCorp facility on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania County. That center has two linear accelerators, machines that deliver measured doses of radiation to cancerous tumors. Each accelerator did 7,054 treatments last year, according to Varmette's report.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 10/25/2008
where is the performance data for consumers?
(posted by
larryg
, Oct. 26, 2008 11:50 am)
Of the existing centers, is there no evaluation metric for
performance?
It appears that the State treats all of them as if they all
perform the same services in the same way ...rather than
have performance information as at least part of the
decision process.
Where are the consumers represented in this process?
The State seems to want to reduce redundancy ... using
mostly data about use....
For instance, if the facility in Montross had an excellent
reputation... it might actually DRAW customers...
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