Just five months after the county nixed a rival's plans to build a hospital in Ashburn, Inova Loudoun Hospital has taken the first step to open a full-service hospital on U.S. 50.

Inova filed July 1 with state regulators to build an 80-bed hospital on 95 acres it owns at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Route 659 in Arcola. Barring delays in getting state and county approvals, and barring opposition from “other health care providers,” the new facility should be up and running with 50 of the 80 planned beds by December 2013, said Inova Loudoun CEO Randy Kelley.

A "healthplex" – including emergency care, physician offices and outpatient services – has been approved by the county for Inova's U.S. 50 property and will start construction soon. It will grow into the planned hospital.

The Inova hospital on U.S. 50, if approved, will be the county's second. It will include a 24/7 emergency department and ambulance service, a helipad, 70 medical/surgical beds, 10 intensive care beds, eight operating rooms, one CT (computed tomography) scanner and one MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

HCA, parent of Reston Hospital Center, also owns land on U.S. 50 but declined to build there after the Board of Supervisors turned down its plan to build a hospital in Broadlands. Population densities, HCA executives said at the time, will not support a hospital along U.S. 50.

“Putting a hospital on Route 50 is justified now, based upon the population that is already there, and it ensures that need will not outstrip supply should the population along Route 50 increase,” Inova's Kelley said.

HCA Vice President Mark Foust said his organization will have to “see the details of the application before reaching a decision on our response.”

After the county turned down the Broadlands project, HCA announced plans to add 152 beds to its 187-bed Reston Hospital. That request has been submitted to Fairfax zoning officials.