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.
The current building houses both the surgery center and the Rappahannock Eye Center. Dr. Thomas Falkenberg, one of the owners of the eye clinic, declined to comment yesterday on what will happen to the clinic if the surgery center moves.
At Stafford Hospital Center, officials want to place a cardiac catheterization lab on the first floor. The lab would share equipment, space and staff with the interventional radiology section.
Additional equipment for the project is expected to cost $556,450, to be paid for by MediCorp from its savings.
A cath lab is where patients are checked for heart problems. Frequently, a cardiologist inserts a thin tube or catheter inside an artery in the groin and pushes it to the heart.
There the physician might open a blocked artery or treat other problems.
Mary Washington Hospital has three cath labs, the only ones in the region. Each of its labs does about 1,200 procedures a year.
The new Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center will have a cath lab when it opens next year.
Stafford Hospital officials used the state health commissioner's own words to support their argument for a lab.
In granting the permit for the Stafford Hospital in 2006, the commissioner described a cardiac catheterization lab as an "expected component of a community hospital."
Officials expect about 14 percent of the cardiac cath procedures now done at Mary Washington to be shifted to Stafford Hospital.
Ninety percent of the procedures done at Stafford Hospital would be done on Stafford residents, with 6 percent done on Prince William County residents.
The surgery center and cath lab applications will be reviewed next at a regional hearing in Culpeper May 5.
For more about the two projects, check the Rapid Assessment blog at fredericksburg.com/rapidassess ment.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
| $11.9 million
Net revenue 69 Number of full-time workers 25% Cataract cases $2.2 million Net income 11,214 Procedures 56% Gastroenterology cases Source: Application for state permit. Numbers are for 2008. |
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$6.9 million Net revenue $725,000 Net income 680 Procedures 5 Full-time workers 51% Medicare patients Source: Application for state permit. Numbers are projected for first full year. |