“Loudoun’s residents have long asked for another hospital and a choice in hospital care,” said Tracey White, vice president of community and government relations for HCA Capital Division. “It has taken 8 long years to get the county’s approval of HCA’s project that will answer that call, and we are pleased that residents are finally one step closer to getting the care and access they deserve.”
In a proposal marked by numerous heated public meetings, HCA had originally wanted to build a hospital in Asbhurn called the Broadlands Regional Medical Center. But community uproar over adding more congestion to already built-up Ashburn led to county supervisors narrowly rejecting that request in early 2009.
With its new location on 49 acres at Route 50’s intersection with Gum Spring Road just north of the Stone Ridge community, opposition to HCA’s latest plans to build the StoneSpring Medical Center were non-existent. At public hearings in front of the Planning Commission in April and in front of the Board of Supervisors Monday night, nary a resident spoke out against the company’s special exception application.
The four-story StoneSpring facility is slated to open in late 2015. It will have a full-service emergency department run in partnership with Children’s National Medical Center; medical, surgical, pediatric and intensive care services; 12 labor, delivery and post-partum beds; child and teen mental health services; advanced cardiac care facilities; and state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging and interventional services. It will also have an accompanying 100,000-square-foot medical offices building. The company also has the option to add an additional 125,000 square feet of space in the future.
The project will cost approximately $195 million to construct, and will bring about 500 jobs to Loudoun, company officials estimate.
At a public hearing immediately before the supervisors’ vote, many speakers expressed frustrations over the limited health care options in southern Loudoun. The county’s other hospital is Inova Loudoun in Lansdowne.
“Residents of the Route 50 corridor don’t have adequate medical care services,” said Middleburg Town Council Member Catherine Murdock.
Of board members, Vice Chairman Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) called the vote “closure.” She stopped herself short from commenting on the controversy that surrounded HCA’s Broadlands proposal, which included a lawsuit by Inova Health System, simply saying instead, “it’s time to move forward.”
In a cautious tone, Chairman Scott York (I-At Large) said continued growth in Loudoun might force HCA’s Broadlands proposal to resurface in the future. The company still owns the property at Belmont Ridge Road and the Dulles Greenway but has no immediate plans to develop it.
“I hope someday that a Board of Supervisors will approve the one off the Greenway,” he said.
Regarding StoneSpring, Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) offered the most enthusiastic response to expanding Loudoun’s health-care options.
“In the Route 50 corridor, we have long, long waited for hospital care,” he said. “I’m just tickled pink something is being done on the Route 50 corridor.”
See stonespringmedical.com to learn more.
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