From the Tennessean:
State denies HCA hospital in Spring Hill
Administrative law judge revokes approval of the controversial project
By: KATHRIN CHAVEZ
Staff Writer
A state administrative law judge has ruled that HCA cannot build a 56-bed hospital in Spring Hill.
The ruling came in the wake of an appeal by Williamson Medical Center and Maury Regional Hospital against the state Health Services and Development Agency’s approval of HCA’s certificate of need application for the hospital.
Administrative Judge Leonard Pogue wrote in his ruling that the Williamson and Maury hospitals had made "significant capital investments to serve the needs of their service areas, which include Spring Hill."
"The CON process does not guarantee freedom from any competition, but it does require that new facilities be approved only if there is a genuine need … Authorizing construction of a new hospital in Spring Hill before there is a sufficient population to support the need for such a facility would have a severe impact on both MRH and WMC … The proposed (hospital) will not contribute to the orderly development of adequate and effective health care facilities or services in the community."
Williamson Medical Center argued the proposed HCA hospital would drive up health care costs by duplicating services and technology already available at WMC and would harm the Williamson hospital’s ability to serve patients siphoning away an estimated $19 million during its first five years alone, said hospital
spokeswoman Laura Bustetter.
Williamson Medical Center recently completed an $83 million expansion, which included 59 new patient beds, a new surgery center, tripling the size of the emergency department and more physician office space.
I'll have more information once we get a copy of the judge's order...
Update: Click Here to downloand the Initial Judge's Order.
31 comments:
The ruling is an interesting read. I'd highly suggest anyone intending to comment on this should read all 40 pages first, to temper your response.
So... is it over? or will HCA try again?
HCA will definitely try again. The need is too great in Spring Hill to quit. Larry Kloess, the president of HCA, said that this is just another phase in the CON process and it wouldn't dimish their committment to Spring Hill.-Nashville Business Journal
So, no. I don't believe it's over.
Hmmm, HCA would be foolish to continue to push this. The argument of need is to hard to make already. To paraphrase Judge Pogue, community support does not equate need. How much money are they willing to lose. The person who came out most ahead is good ole Peter Jenkins. Hooray for Peter! He is a great guy. CA
PS. We will now within 2 weeks whether they will appeal.
Looks like CA has awakened from hibernation, maybe gorilla will too.
Don't wait on the gorilla... He was too busy at last night's BOMA meeting trying to throw the Shannon Glen subdivision under the bus.
Way to go Michael!!! What are you getting out of the Shoppes of Belshire?
Go tell people who live in Franklin that Williamson Medical Center is 20 miles away from their homes and see how many raise hell. Close the facility and make them drive the Nashville for healthcare, that would fly like a 1 ton rock.
With the number of people and number of children living and moving into the city of Spring Hill and the surrounding areas there IS a need for healthcare closer to home. There are many many retirees moving to Spring Hill, following their children and grand children. A 45 minute ride to Maury Regional or Williamson Medical is NOT acceptable!
Not to mention the Franklin area is growing leaps and bounds and will soon outgrow Williamson Medical. Same goes for Maury County. Has anyone seen the development is both areas lately, or are they blind? I'll bet my next pay check if HCA is denied in the end that either Williamson Medical of Maury Regional will be proposing a hospital in Spring Hill wihin the next 3 years.
If you actually read the ruling you would not that both places have looked into this and determined (prior to all of this) that a hospital is not needed.
Posted by Anonymous:
" If you actually read the ruling you would not that both places have looked into this and determined (prior to all of this) that a hospital is not needed."
Why would they want a hospital here? It would only serve to dilute their core business locations. Instead, they will continue to grow other services to funnel business back to their respective base locations.
But they KNOW there is a need here.
"A 45 minute ride to Maury Regional or Williamson Medical is NOT acceptable!"
What did spring hill move???
This ruling is hilarious. YOU WERE WARNED !!!!! but uh oh...Now where will EMS go? Spring Hill ready to foot the bill? This ought to be a show. CA's favorite Medic
Apparently not only is Spring Hill going to have the population of Knoxville, it is apparently going to have the acres of Alaska. HAHA. I miss you guys up at WMC. WMC number 1, that is except for Dennis, he is number 0. CA
Yes, it can be a 45 minute drive to WMC or MRH, in peak traffic times for the average non-ambulance rider.
In normal drive times, it's more like 15-30, depending on which place you are headed to, and from which side of town you are starting out.
Here's the solution. If you are truly having and Emergency, call 911.
This really opens up discussion regarding a bigger social ill, the misuse of the ER by folks with pseudo emergencies. It does not hurt someone who has a hangnail to wait 45 minutes in peak traffic times to get to the ER. Maybe during this time frame they can rationally decide "Maybe this does not need to go to the ER."
If people who were truly sick, like the wonderful folks recruited by HCA to testify, would call 911 then the ride clearly would not take 45 minutes even in peak traffic times.
The lack of common sense during an emergency does not justify the need for a hospital either. Just because people make silly decisions, does not mean they need a hospital in their neighborhood. You already have an ambulance service, underutilized as it is, at least for now, so use it.
If HCA appeals this decision, then we will truly see how much money that they have to waste. I guess the picture of Danny and Bill Frist did not impress Judge Pogue as much as it did the HSDA!
I'm not sure what's worse... the marginalization of people with legitimate emergencies by bringing up absurdly extreme examples like hang-nails, or the fact that your entire tone is that the average person is too stupid to decide if they are in an emergency situation.
If you're a medical caregiver - please post your name so I can avoid your better-than-you attitude and place of employment.
DRM,
Do you feel that the people who chose to drive to the ER with a seizing child, a hypoglycemic child, and the young lady with a stone were making the right decision? Have you ever worked in an ER and seen the non emergent things that clog up the ER system? Maybe you should spend a night at MRH and see the exact reason why people have to wait. People use the ER as a primary care provider, and the ER cannot turn them away. So when you hear all of these stories about people having to wait for hours for care, ask yourself, how many intoxicated people, malingerers, and non emergent patients did the ER have to deal with that day.
To say that there is not misuse of the ER by people who do not know what a true emergency is, is to be very uninformed.
I can tell you this, the previous poster does not work at the Spring Hill Hospital, as it was appropriately denied.
wow you are correct there does need to be talk about use of emergency rooms. I would not consider 8:45 comments they way to begin a real discussion on that topic.
Do people go to the er that clinicaly could be treated in an office? Of course. Do people drive themselves to the er during an acute situation that should call 911? Of course. People also do not go to the er that should and stay home and die.
The average person has neither the training or experience to deal with emergencies. That is why I have a job. The nature of an emergency overwhelms peoples ability to use comman sense and think through situations. Everyone respondes to crisis differently. 16 years of fire and ems has taught me that when a person calls 911 then it is an emergency to them. It is not my job to decide if it is a "real" emergency.
Maybe it is time to stop blaming the public for not making the best decisions during times of crisis and take another approach. There was a study done in the early 1970's called America Burning. It delt with the fire problem in the United States. One of the main conclusions to come from it was the way to deal with fires is education and prevention. That is one of the main reasons there are fewer fires now than 30 years ago. Maybe we should as health care providers take the same approach to emergency medical incidents. We could all do a better job of educating the public on what is an emergency and do less insulting.
just my two cents worth.
ps- on a side note to brag a little, after 20 years of smoking I am in my 4th week smoke free.
ole fire fighter
so let me ask the question this way: at what point (population wise, etc) does anyone feel a hospital would be justified in SH? is there a magic number? is there a number at which MRH or WMC would not fight or would they always fight unless it was either of them (that begs to question, if it were MRH, would WMC fight their ability to build and vice versa?) is there a population # that they won't fight or will it be a $ figure?
i do find it amusing that this fight continues on this front, but I just read that WMC got a CON approved for an expansion in SH..
They don't want a hospital because I don't think they want anyone to encroach on their piecemeal expansion plans...
oh, and I forgot to add to my last post.
Keep up the good fight Ole Fire Fighter!
best of luck to you!
Derek
Here's another question: What if Maury Regional were asked to build a hospital in Spring Hill? Would they? Have they been asked? Why does this HAVE to be HCA?
MRH was not approached by Spring Hill. It is in the documents. They had already done a feasibility study years prior and determined a hospital was not needed. The bottom line is that Spring Hill wanted a FOR PROFIT hospital, which is why they did not approach the two non profits. CA
Trust me - either we will get an HCA hospital here, or you'll see MRH and/or WMC continue to expand their services to come as close as they can while still trying to funnel money back to their core locations.
There will be NO HCA hospital. Anyone who believes otherwise has not read Pogue's ruling. You speak of referring back to your home base as if it were evil; however, this is exactly what HCA was trying to do.
how many years prior was that feasibility study done? were the #s on population growth then close to what is actual now? (just curious)
This has become less about what SH needs and more about what the others want to "let" happen. More political and economic positioning than true concern about services to SH residents (my .02). If MRH and WMC didn't think that there was a true need then they wouldn't be dumping more money into providing additional "services" for the area with their clinics, they're just doing it piecemeal vs. a central location, they don't want someone to squash their expansion efforts...
Anonymous,
I read the ruling. And in my opinion, HCA lost it based on some poor fact finding methods. I think another CON with better fact finding and data would stand a better chance. I didn't get from the ruling that the need was lacking in SH, I read that the *case* HCA presented was lacking.
Did anyone see Alderman Hull's comments in the Tennessean about how he couldn't believe his eyes when he read SHH will pay the fees associated with the appeal? Was he sleeping during the entire ordeal as HCA said many times MRH and WMC would have to pay the costs associated if they lost.
Why should he care if HCA has to pay the fees or not. It's not like it's costing him or the city anything.
Well, it's official. HCA has asked for a review the judges overturn.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/BUSINESS01/71025015
This is just a save face ploy. I think Leverette forced their hand by his statements the same day that the ruling came out. It will be the same verdict. The HSDA decision was based on a rapid fire hearing, the judge's decision was based on a careful review of the facts that were provided by HCA. Same soup different bowl now. HCA has more money than sense here. CA
I agree with everything you said Anon @ 15:15 but watch the language. Sorry, you are welcome to re-write your comment but please do not include the bombs that were included. Thanks!
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