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Hospital company drops lawsuit against Loudoun County
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Related Topics: Loudoun County
The company, which owns 10 Virginia hospitals, aborted three years of litigation amid signals the new Loudoun County board will reconsider the application.
Relieving the pressure of the court case and a new review by the Board of Supervisors give the hospital the best chance to achieve its goals of building the long-awaited hospital, company President Margaret Lewis said.
"We certainly believe this board will be fair and impartial and will evaluate the proposal based on the county's needs," said John Foust, a spokesman for company. "The community need for this hospital grows stronger almost every day, and by removing this from the courts, we believe we can reach a solution."
Supervisors from the previous board rejected the application out of concern that the hospital was poorly situated and located too close - within five miles - to the existing Inova Loudoun Hospital at Lansdowne.
The decision prolongs a bitter argument that could take at least another year to settle, leaving the health care community on edge, Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio said.
"Loudoun Hospital can't continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars while this board is figuring out if it wants to put in another hospital," he said. "You're going to see 1,000 people on one side and 1,000 people on the other side."
But HCA points to statistics showing that the rate of hospital beds per 1,000 residents is just over one-fifth of the national average.
"Loudoun has been one of the fastest-growing counties in America for several years. It's a perfect storm that speaks to one thing: The community needs another hospital," Foust said.
Getting healthy
Hospital beds per 1,000 people:
» Loudoun County: 0.62
» Prince William County: 0.92
» Fairfax County: 1.48
» Arlington: 1.83
» Northern Virginia: 1.33
» U.S.: 3.01
Source: Virginia Health Information
