Va. Beach Planned Parenthood request gets preliminary denial

VIRGINIA BEACH

The staff of the Virginia Department of Health has recommended denial of a controversial application submitted by Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia to add two operating rooms to its Newtown Road clinic, according to a report released Thursday.

Among the reasons given for the recommendation: The region already has too many operating rooms; the nonprofit didn't show that its project filled a unique need; and there are "reasonable alternatives" to the proposal.

"We're obviously very disappointed," said Erin Zabel, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman. "We know that they're needed services because our patients tell us, the people in the community tell us."

The nonprofit's Virginia Beach Health Center was seeking the operating rooms so it could surgically treat conditions such as incontinence, suspicious breast lumps and chronic pelvic pain - particularly for low-income, uninsured women, according to its application.

Anti-abortion activists have expressed concern that the operating rooms would allow the clinic to perform second-trimester abortions. Zabel has said there are no plans to expand services to include the late-term procedures.

The mayors of Newport News and Portsmouth and three state legislators were among those supporting the application. In opposition was the CEO of Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System, who wrote a letter saying the new operating rooms weren't needed.

In its report, the state health staff agreed that the proposed project would "significantly increase patient financial accessibility to gynecological surgical services for residents... who are low income and medically uninsured or under-insured."

However, the staff wrote that the South Hampton Roads health district already has too many general-purpose operating rooms with 127, including some at facilities required to provide indigent care.

If the Planned Parenthood proposal was approved, the staff estimated an excess of 11 operating rooms by 2016. That number is computed through a mathematical formula dictated by Virginia administrative code.

"Improving access to existing operating rooms is a more economical and efficient alternative to adding capacity," according to the state report.

Planned Parenthood argued that some of those were for specialty surgeries and none were dedicated to gynecologic procedures.

The staff also wrote that the nonprofit didn't demonstrate the need for the operating rooms. It expressed skepticism about Planned Parenthood's estimate of 1,700 to 1,900 surgical cases in each of its first two years, and objected to a prediction that about one-fourth of its surgical patients would come from a neighboring health district.

The nonprofit contended that the district's demand for surgical services was underestimated and that it might see more patients if a new state law more strictly regulating abortion clinics results in the closure of other Planned Parenthood locations.

Rather than equipping new operating rooms, Planned Parenthood could maintain a list of providers who would take new low-income and uninsured patients, the report said.

Zabel said Planned Parenthood hadn't yet decided whether to pursue the application further.

A final decision from the state health commissioner is likely later this year.

Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com