HCA Hires Children's to Help With Embattled Hospital

Officials from Hospital Corporation of America and Children's National Medical Center announced Monday they will collaborate on staffing, training and equipment for pediatric care at a proposed hospital in Broadlands if the project is approved.

Children's National, ranked one of the top 15 children's hospitals in the country for general pediatrics by U.S. News & World Report, will help design Broadlands Regional Medical Center's pediatric emergency room, which will be outfitted with specialized equipment and staff to serve newborns, infants and teenagers, officials said.

"Children are not small adults," said Children's chief medical officer Peter R. Holbrook at a news conference near the proposed site in Ashburn. "They have different diseases, they have different disease processes, they have different needs. To plan for emergency care of children or for comprehensive care of children takes expertise that is not widely held in the community."

The partnership comes two months after HCA resubmitted its land-use application to the county for its planned 24-hour, 164-bed hospital at the Dulles Greenway and Route 659.

In 2004, HCA received a certificate of need from state authorities to build the hospital, but county supervisors denied HCA's special exception request for the project in 2005, citing noise, traffic and lighting concerns.

HCA filed suit in Loudoun County Circuit Court in response to the decision, but in March, a newly elected board narrowly voted to seek a continuance of the trial -- days before it was set to begin -- and to allow HCA to resubmit its request, which it did in April. HCA has dropped its suit against the county, said Mark Foust, spokesman for HCA Virginia.

The application is in the hands of county staff and must clear the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Construction would take about two years following approval, Foust said.

The project has faced intense opposition from rival Inova Health System -- which operates the county's only hospital -- and a group of Broadlands residents who say the hospital would affect quality of life.

In response to Monday's announcement, Inova issued a statement, arguing that BRMC is unnecessary given its planned proximity to Inova Loudoun Hospital.

"Since 2006, Inova Loudoun Hospital has provided Loudoun County residents with a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department complete with pediatric hospitalists, emergency physicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week, incorporating a private entrance -- including dedicated parking," Inova spokesman Che Parker said in a statement. "The proposed HCA facility in Broadlands once again proves a duplication of services only 5-miles from Inova Loudoun Hospital within a 517 square mile county."

Rhonda Paice, a Leesburg attorney who represents Concerned Citizens of Broadlands, said news of the partnership does not alleviate her clients' concerns about a 475,000-square-foot hospital coming to their neighborhood. She said the project does not conform to the county's comprehensive plan, conflicting with plans for where the next hospital should be located.

"The proposed site is smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and my clients have always been very vocal in their opposition to traffic and noise and lighting and 24-7 use," Paice said.

Cliff Keirce, president of the Broadlands Association's board of directors, supports the hospital and said he thinks Monday's announcement will build support for it in the community.

"We're woefully underserved in medical care" in Loudoun County, Keirce said. "From what I've found, the vast majority of those that are against it happen to live right across the street from it. . . . [The hospital] would be much less obtrusive than some of the other possible uses of the site."

A children's emergency room was always planned for the new hospital because it was part of HCA's certificate of need, Foust said, and the new partnership will not alter the construction plans.

Children's will be paid for its consulting and staffing services by HCA, but Foust declined to release details of the financial arrangement.

Staff writer Sandhya Somashekhar contributed to this report.