HealthSouth gets OK for rehab hospital
By Shannon Sollinger
A 40-bed rehabilitation hospital on U.S. 50, not far from Arcola, should be open for its first patients by mid-2010.
State Health Commissioner Karen Remley ruled July 30 that HealthSouth Corp. can go ahead with its plans to build a 40-bed freestanding rehabilitation hospital in the fast-growing U.S. 50 corridor.
At the same time, Remley turned down Inova Loudoun Hospital's application to build a 20-bed rehabilitation facility in the old hospital building in Leesburg.
HealthSouth owns and operates four rehabilitation hospitals in Virginia. This is its first in Northern Virginia, where Inova dominates health care.
Remley cited the need for more competition in the Northern Virginia market in which Inova owns 77 percent of the existing rehabilitation beds.
In addition, the Inova plan would have involved moving 20 existing rehabilitation beds from Mount Vernon Hospital to Leesburg. That, according to the Heath Department staff in Richmond, would reduce the availability of rehabilitation beds available there, just as Mount Vernon is preparing to open a 50-bed long-term acute-care hospital.
Northern Virginia has a shortage of rehabilitation beds compared to other regions of the commonwealth. Some other regions have half the population but three times as many beds.
HealthSouth, which operates more than 100 rehabilitation hospitals countrywide, was attracted to the Loudoun location by its fast-growing population, said Jeff Ruskin, CEO of the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Richmond. In addition, the older-than-65 portion of the population is growing even faster, he said.
"This will be a post-acute-care setting dedicated to getting patients back to living a normal life," Ruskin said. All rooms will be private, and it will offer intense therapy and a team approach for patients who are recovering from strokes, neurological problems, brain and spinal cord injuries, amputations, and pulmonary and some orthopedic issues, he said.
"Then there's the obvious access issue," Ruskin said. "All the existing rehabilitation beds in [Planning District 8] are in the eastern portion of Northern Virginia. The closest are at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington."
The decision will not affect plans to upgrade the emergency room and laboratory improvements and expansion at the Western Loudoun Medical Center in Leesburg, Inova Loudoun Hospital CEO Randy Kelley said.
This decision "merely reinforces that there is need for health care on Route 50, consistent with the county's Comprehensive Plan," Kelley said.
Both Inova and HCA, which is trying for a second time to get supervisors' approval to build a hospital in Broadlands, own hospital sites along U.S. 50. The fate of Broadlands Regional Medical Center, which Inova opposes, will have to be resolved before "anything of substance happens on Route 50," Kelley said.