A regional health planning agency yesterday rejected a proposed outpatient eye surgery center for North Stafford.
The board of directors of the Northwestern Virginia Health Systems Agency, meeting in Culpeper, voted 17-3 to recommend denial of a plan offered by Dr. Amos Willis and Dr. Thomas Falkenberg, longtime Stafford County ophthalmologists.
Board members said they did not want to recommend approval of another operating room when the region is about to get 12 new rooms.
"We already have too many in the area," said Donald Sandridge, board chairman.
Four operating rooms are being added at Mary Washington Hospital and are expected to open later this year.
Eight additional rooms will be contained in the new hospitals that have been approved for Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. Those rooms are expected to be ready in 2009.
Willis and Falkenberg have proposed a surgery center for eyes only in a building now under construction in the Stafford Commerce Park, off State Route 610.
The proposed Fredericksburg Eye Surgery Center would have one operating room and would cost nearly $3.2 million. If approved, it would open in 2008.
Willis and Falkenberg have argued that their center would bring a new service to the area, retinal surgery, and would have lower prices.
Last month the Rappahannock Health Advisory Council endorsed the idea.
The new center would compete with the Surgi-Center of Central Virginia, located near the Chatham Bridge in southern Stafford.
Willis founded that outpatient center and did eye surgeries, especially cataract surgery, there for many years. He is now retired from medical practice. Falkenberg continues to work there, as does his colleague, Dr. Binoy Jani.
Willis sold the surgery business five years ago to USPI, a Texas company. He retained ownership of the building and is still a part owner of the business, according to testimony yesterday.
USPI officials said yesterday that Falkenberg did not use all his operating room time at SCCV, and that additional time was available if he and Jani needed it.
"There's plenty of capacity to expand cataract surgery at SCCV," said Peter Mellette, attorney for the company. "We're not sure why this application is coming forward."
Falkenberg disputed that, saying he did use all his OR time. He also said he had grown weary of trying to get USPI to supply the needed medicine and equipment for his eye surgeries.
"I've stopped asking," he said.
Ophthalmologic surgery represents about 40 percent of all surgical cases at the Surgi-Center and is the single largest speciality by surgical case volume, according to a report on the proposal. Most of these procedures are cataract surgery.
Board members said they resented being put in the middle of what appeared to be a complicated business dispute between Willis and Falkenberg on the one side, and their tenant and partner, USPI, on the other.
"We are being asked to add expensive ORs because you two can't agree. I find that appalling," said Ruth Hanft, board member.
Other board members criticized the proposed center as little more than a "squabble over control."
"That's not our problem," said Charlie Horton. "Adding ORs is our concern."
Willis and Falkenberg's proposal now goes to Richmond and the state Health Department, where Dr. Robert Stroube, the state health commissioner, will have the final say. His decision is expected early next year.
To reach JIM HALL:
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com