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Firefighter Out of Hospital
Route 50 Hospital Gets a Green Light
Lt. John "Bones" Earley rides home after being released from a hospital. He was severely burned in May in a fire in Leesburg.
(By Kevin Wright)
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As HealthSouth received news last week that the Virginia Department of Health had granted it a certificate of public need to build a 40-bed rehabilitation hospital on Route 50 near Stone Ridge, Inova Health System learned that its application to add 40 rehab beds at its Cornwall campus had been denied.
HealthSouth's new hospital will join its other operations in Virginia; the company has clinics and hospitals in the Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Richmond and Petersburg areas.
The 47,500-square-foot facility in Loudoun will offer inpatient and outpatient rehabilitative services for patients who have had trauma, strokes, cardiac and pulmonary diseases and arthritis. Officials anticipate that about 200 employees will work at the hospital once it is in full swing.
Construction is anticipated to begin in December or January, HealthSouth officials said, after they receive a zoning exception from the county. The hospital is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2010.
Cindy Kelleher, vice president of corporate development for HealthSouth, said the company chose this part of Northern Virginia because of its significant over-65 population and Loudoun's projected population growth.
Inova and HCA Virginia want to build full-service hospitals along Route 50, but neither company has been granted a certificate of public need to do so.
Inova spokesman Che Parker said in a statement: "While our COPN was denied, we note that the Adjudication Officer's recommendations approving the Route 50 location actually echo what citizens, Inova Loudoun Hospital officials, even the county's Healthcare Facilities Plan have long been stating: the Route 50 corridor is the most appropriate location for new healthcare services. In the end, it's all about location."
Since HCA announced plans to build the Broadlands Regional Medical Center about five miles from Inova's Lansdowne campus, Inova officials have said that a better location for the county's next full-service hospital would be the Dulles South corridor.
Supporters of BRMC say there is not a population base along Route 50 to support a full-service hospital.
Does the Department of Health's approval of the HealthSouth facility repudiate this claim?
Drivers Ticketed At Three Checkpoints
At three checkpoints in the past few weeks, which were set up during the evening rush hour, Loudoun County sheriff's deputies cited 27 motorists for driving without a license or with a suspended license. Other drivers were issued citations for inspection and registration infractions.
"Motorists can expect at least one more license checkpoint this summer," sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell said.
