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How to find Virginia COPN filings
Where the state publishes certificate of public need records, what each document contains, and how to get the ones that are not online.
Where does Virginia publish COPN filings?
The Virginia Department of Health's Division of Certificate of Public Need (DCOPN) posts them on its COPN program page. That page links to separate lists of public notices, letters of intent, staff reports and case decisions, and to a public hearing calendar. A monthly spreadsheet of every request (the Monthly Report) is linked from the same page.
What does each document tell you?
A letter of intent comes first, one to three months before an application, and names the applicant and project. The public notice is a one-page letter with the applicant, request number, project, address and capital cost. The DCOPN staff report carries the analysis: owner and parent, planning district, competing applications, the State Medical Facilities Plan review and the staff recommendation. The case decision is the State Health Commissioner's ruling and any certificate. The Monthly Report lists every request with its dates, recommendations and outcome.
Why is it hard to follow a request from start to finish?
The documents sit on different pages. Notices come off the notices page after about a year, though the PDFs usually stay on the site. Many decision files are named by certificate number rather than request number, and many are scanned images. Competing requests often share one staff report. For applications from 2016 to 2018, most staff reports and decisions are not posted online.
How do I get records that are not online?
Ask VDH under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act through its records portal, vdh.nextrequest.com. Name the request numbers and documents you want. VDH may charge its actual cost and will give an estimate in advance on request.
Is there other public data that helps?
Virginia Health Information (VHI) publishes hospital and facility utilization data that applicants and DCOPN staff use in need analyses. The regional health planning agencies review applications in their areas, and their recommendations appear in the Monthly Report.
Where does COPN Atlas fit?
COPN Atlas joins those documents into one row per request: every Virginia request with an application received since January 2016, with the staff recommendation, the Commissioner's decision, charity care conditions, competing requests and the capital cost, plus letters of intent not yet noticed. Most rows link to VDH's PDFs; the rest come from VDH's request log, and the missing documents have been requested from VDH. It is updated monthly and sold as an Excel and CSV file. See what is in the file or ask for the 10-row sample.