When Inova Loudoun Hospital recently made formal application for a Certificate of Public Need from the state health commissioner for an 80-bed hospital in Western Loudoun County, residents in that part of the county breathed a sigh of relief.

After years of acrimonious debate about where to locate a second hospital in the county, Inova Health Systems is clearly determined to keep its promise to build a modern medical facility where so many residents believe it is most needed.

"We fully intend to provide the very best medical services to Western Loudoun residents as quickly as we receive this approval," said Inova Loudoun Hospital CEO Randy Kelley. "Having a hospital at the intersection of Route 50 and Route 659 will address a critical need for families who don't now have quick access to acute and emergency care."

In February, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved zoning for a new Inova Loudoun Hospital and Healthplex on property Inova owns, but the debate between Inova and Hospital Corporation of America put Inova's Route 50 corridor plans on hold.

"We were as frustrated as the Western Loudoun families we hoped to serve," Kelley explained when describing Inova's plans for the new facility. "The existing population more than justifies the need for a hospital, and projected growth makes it even more important that medical services be established now before the need further outstrips supply."

For anyone who is familiar with traffic congestion in Greater Loudoun County, the thought of moving at a snail's pace toward Inova's Lansdowne campus with an injured child or an ill parent is a nightmare.

"We thoroughly understand the situation," Kelley emphasized, "and we are more determined than ever to get this facility up and running."

The new Route 50 hospital will include a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week emergency care department with an ambulance receiving station, a helipad for trauma-care transport and rapid medical emergency response. It will also provide 70 medical/surgical general hospital beds, 10 specialty Intensive Care Unit beds, eight operating rooms, a CT-Scanner and an MRI unit.

"It is our goal to open the new hospital by the end of 2013," Kelley said. "We will move as quickly as the approval process allows."