News
8/16/2006 - Montgomery Hospitals Prevail Before CON Review Board
(Montgomery) Following oral arguments before a packed house at the Capitol Auditorium in Montgomery, the Alabama Certificate of Need Board voted unanimously today to deny a CON proposed by TriMedica for a 32-bed private for-profit acute care hospital on the Montgomery County line. The CON was opposed by Jackson Hospital & Clinic, Inc., represented at the hearing by Dennis R. Bailey of Rushton, Stakely, Johnston & Garrett, P.A., and by Baptish Health, represented by James E. Williams of Melton & Espy. Ann Huckstep of Adams & Reese, attorneys for TriMedica, argued that the facility was needed to serve low-income residents of Bullock County because the existing hospital in Union Springs did not offer services such as obstectrical and gynecological services. But Dennis Bailey argued that there was no logical or scientific relation between the services proposed by TriMedica and the stated needs of improving prenatal care, lowering infant mortality and teen pregnacy. He told the Board: "Building a $50 million boutique hospital on the county line to address those needs is like throwing a mink to a woman splashing in the shallow end of a pool: (1) You can't be sure she is really drowning; and (2) if she was, a mink is just an expensive way not to really help her." He pointed out that the recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge approving the CON should be ignored because it did not mention the testimony of the only perinatal epidemiologist to testify at the month-long hearing in 2004. Dr. Thomas Hulsey testified that an acute care facility would not affect the stated needs in Bullock County because the county had no infant deaths in 2002-2003 and because such facilities do not provide prenatal care or prevent teen pregnacy.
CONRB Board Member Suzanne Simmons questioned the location of the proposed hospital stating: "If the need is to help the people of that county who truly need care, why is it being located next to one of the most affluent areas of Montgomery County?"
Jackson CEO Don Henderson stated: "Allowing these types of hospitals will stretch the critical safety net of the current hospital system in Montgomery to a dangerous level. At the end of the day, the enrichment of a relatively small group of private citizens investing in this specialty hospital may deprive the community at large of a broad range of general hospital services in the fragile network of patient care that currently exists in our area."TriMedica may request reconsideration of the decision or appeal it.