Just west of the Five Corners intersection on the North Shore Road, next to the Superior Pet Supply Store in LaGrande Princesse, stands a vacant building. More than a month ago, a sign appeared on that building advertising the impending opening of the next satellite clinic of the nonprofit Frederiksted Health Care.
The sign reads at the bottom in big, red capital letters, “Coming Soon.’
When and if the sign changes to "open for business," though, remains to be seen.
Masserae Sprauve-Webster, chief executive officer of Frederiksted Health Care, said she thought the new satellite clinic, scheduled to provide the same primary care services that are provided at the Ingeborg Nesbitt site in Frederiksted, would have been serving north shore patients already.
“We would have hoped to have been opened. It’s outfitted and ready to go. However, facilities like us have to apply for a certificate of need, and we haven’t heard back yet.”
That certificate of need, she said, is the equivalent of a business license. Unlike the V.I. Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, which handles issuing business licenses, the certificate of need in this instance has to come from the V.I. Department of Health.
“There’s no question of whether there is a need,” Sprauve-Webster said. “But it has been rather frustrating because we didn’t think there would be problems.”
She added, “We could open tomorrow.”
As for what is delaying the clinic’s opening, Sprauve-Webster said, “The concern is we provide similar services already provided in Christiansted, not too far from our site.”
In other words, competition. When DLCA issues licenses, it doesn’t worry about competing interests. It merely regulates and licenses industry, whereas the health department not only regulates and sets policy, but also administers services via providers.
“I think there are more than enough people in the community who need the services and there is enough for all to provide services without any sort of competition,” she said.
Sprauve-Webster remains optimistic the application process will move forward, and that the clinic can open soon.
“We haven’t gotten a yes, but we haven’t had a no either,” she said.
In response to questions about the status of that certificate of need and the delay in issuing it, Health Commissioner Darice Plaskett said, “What I can share with you is they did submit a certificate of need application and we’re meeting with them to facilitate the processing of that application.”
Asked how far along the application process has proceeded, Plaskett said, “We continue to meet with them and we hope to finalize the process in short order … We’re hopeful we can resolve the issues quickly and complete the process.”
Asked if quickly implied weeks or months, Plaskett said, “It’s difficult to give a timeline because there is a process, and I’m hopeful, well, I think it’s in the interest of the department and Frederiksted Health Care to complete the process as quickly as possible.”
When asked if the island could use another primary care clinic, Plaskett said, “There are different primary health care services and there are gaps in some of those services. Certainly with the gaps, it would be great to have those gaps filled.”
