Healthy debate: Aiken Regional concerned about University Health complex

Officials with Aiken Regional Medical Centers, as well as several local residents, are up in arms about University Hospital's plans for a medical office complex on Silver Bluff Road.

Among their many concerns is the additional traffic the 72,000 square-foot complex would bring to an area that already has its share of traffic problems. They also say Aiken Regional could lose patients to Augusta which would hurt the local economy.

University officials say they are trying to serve their patients in Aiken and any traffic issues are being addressed. Now 20 percent of the hospital's patients come from Aiken County.

But for nearby residents this is not a good thing, said Kay Biermann Brohl, a board member for Aiken Regional Medical Centers and a former Planning Commissioner. Brohl said she served on the Planning Commission when the site was annexed into the City a few years ago and said the original concept plan was for mixed-use development, with some retail and residential space.

When the Commission approved the plan then, Brohl said it was under the impression that Silver Bluff Road would be widened to five lanes. Those plans have since been changed and turn lanes will instead be added along major intersections on Silver Bluff. However since there is a new concept plan for the property, Brohl says the additional traffic a medical complex would bring should be taken into account.

"There's a lot of questions that have to be answered and I don't think they have been asked," she said. "I just haven't heard what has happened to make traffic so much better there now."

Andy Lasser, executive vice president of business development at University, said a traffic study of the area says the complex won't have a significant impact on traffic on Silver Bluff and it recommends a drive approach lane be built at the site entrance.

Lasser said he hopes construction of Phase 1, a 12,000 square foot physician office building will begin in six months. Additional offices would be built as the demand required. The second phase of the plan is a 60,000-square-foot addition.

University will lease space in the complex to physicians and other medical businesses.

As a Woodside resident, K.D. Justyn, CEO of Aiken Regional Medical Centers, says she already faces the traffic congestion on Silver Bluff on a daily basis and said the area does not need any more traffic.

"We have enough nightmares on the Southside, we don't need another one," she said.

Justyn and Brohl also have economic concerns.

Brohl said University is looking to draw some of Aiken's more affluent residents to Augusta for hospital care.

"It is not by accident that they've chosen that particular place," Brohl said. "We're wondering community-wise, what it's going to do to the healthcare here?"

Lasser disagrees.

"We're both setting up medical offices on that side of town," he said. "We both see the logic of building (there)."

Also, University opted for a site across town from the local hospital. "We don't want to be on top of Aiken Regional."

Aiken Regional is opening a medical complex in Woodside near the University site.

At both centers, physicians or other medical businesses would lease space from the hospitals.

Lasser said he hopes physicians in University's complex will refer patients to University Hospital, but those doctors won't be obligated to do so. "The doctors could be affiliated with any hospital," he said, including Aiken Regional.

But if local residents begin traveling to Augusta for care in higher numbers than they do currently, Justyn is worried about the economic impact it could have on Aiken Regional. It could create problems recruiting new doctors, she fears.

"It's just the wrong place for it; I'm just concerned we're going down a slippery slope for the entire community," she said. "It's totally inappropriate for a city to allow an entity that's not going to pay taxes for any of (the city's) infrastructure. All they're going to be doing is siphoning all their patients to Augusta."

But Lasser said the city will receive property tax money from the complex.

University will apply for a property tax exemption since it is a not-for-profit organization, but that will be for the land only. The tenants in the office buildings will be businesses which are subject to regular taxes, he said.

Sam Erb, owner of the West Side Bowery restaurant, also opposes the new complex, simply saying: "We have our market, they have their market, now their market is coming into our market during an economic downturn and trying to take our business."

The proposal will go before Aiken City Council members for its second reading on Monday at 7 p.m. at Aiken Municipal building.