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A new surgery center and new heart program at Stafford Hospital have received local endorsements Date published: 4/23/2009
BY JIM HALL BLOG:See more in Jim Hall's blog, "Rapid Assessment."
Two new medical projects--a heart program for Stafford Hospital Center and the relocation of a Stafford County surgery center--have been endorsed by a local advisory group. The Rappahannock Health Advisory Council, a volunteer citizen panel, voted Tuesday night to recommend approval of both projects. Both projects are starting the Health Department's approval process. Dr. Karen Remley, state health commissioner, will decide this summer whether to issue a "certificate of public need" to permit construction. Both projects stand a good chance of approval. Both meet the state's planning guidelines, and neither has any opposition. The Surgi-Center of Central Virginia wants to move from its current location near the Chatham Bridge to a new building about three miles away on Dixon Street in Fredericksburg. The center's four operating rooms and three procedure rooms are the only ones in the region not owned by MediCorp Health System, parent company of Stafford Hospital, Mary Washington Hospital and the Fredericksburg Ambulatory Surgery Center. Last year, local physicians did more than 11,200 procedures at the Surgi-Center, up 50 percent over five years. Because of this, the center has outgrown its current location, said Kenny Ellinger, administrator. Ellinger showed slides of hallways that double as storage areas, operating rooms jammed with equipment, and curtained holding areas for patients. "We need more space," Ellinger said. The new building would be bigger and have more parking, he said. Patients would have more privacy in preoperative and recovery rooms with doors. The number of operating rooms would remain the same, but each room would be about 40 percent larger, Ellinger said. The project is expected to cost $4.7 million and be financed with a loan. For the last eight years, the surgery center has been operated by United Surgical Partners International, a Dallas company. The company operates 164 centers nationwide. The company owns 80 percent of the Stafford center; a dozen local physicians own the remainder. If the state approves the relocation, work would begin in August and the center would open in late 2011.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 4/23/2009
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