Feedback & Followups – August 2013

VCU announces plans to build free-standing children’s hospital

The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System plans to build a free-standing children’s hospital.The hospital’s medical staff would include community doctors as well as VCU physicians. The facility would have its own management structure and governing board with community representation. The hospital would be part of the VCU Medical Center, and any financial surplus from the hospital would be reinvested in children’s services.The hospital, however, would be built without the financial help of Richmond businessman and philanthropist Bill Goodwin.

Goodwin and his wife have offered to cover up to a third of the costs of building a children’s hospital for the area, an estimated $150 million.
They have stressed, however, that the hospital should be independent of the area’s three large health systems, VCU, Bon Secours Virginia Health System and HCA Virginia Health System.

Virginia Business looked at plans for children’s health-care facilities and the need for a free-standing children’s hospital in its October 2012 issue.

Smithfield CEO testifies at hearing on takeover

Smithfield Foods CEO C. Larry Pope told senators in Washington that a proposed takeover by a Chinese company would create U.S. jobs.
Pope was a witness at a July hearing called by the Senate Agriculture Committee.He said the deal with Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. would increase U.S. pork exports to China, a development that would benefit American farmers. No Chinese pork would be imported to the U.S., he said, and Shuanghui would retain Smithfield’s executives and honor union contracts.Virginia Business looked at the ripple effects of the Smithfield deal in its July issue.

CORRECTION

• The editor’s column in the July issue incorrectly cited Sinclair Lewis as the author of “The Jungle.” The author is Upton Sinclair.

• The Out & About photos in the July issue were taken byKaveh Sardari, not Kevin Schindler.