St. Dominic-Madison County Med. Ctr, et al. v. Madison County Med. Ctr


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Docket Number: 2004-SA-01240-SCT
Linked Case(s): 2004-SA-01240-SCT ; 2004-SA-01240-SCT

Supreme Court: Opinion Link
Opinion Date: 05-04-2006
Opinion Author: Easley, J.
Holding: Affirmed

Additional Case Information: Topic: Certificate of need - Relocation of a health care facility
Judge(s) Concurring: Smith, C.J., Waller and Cobb, P.JJ., Carlson and Dickinson, JJ.
Non Participating Judge(s): Diaz and Randolph, JJ.
Dissenting Author : Graves, J.
Nature of the Case: CIVIL - STATE BOARDS AND AGENCIES

Trial Court: Date of Trial Judgment: 05-28-2004
Appealed from: Hinds County Chancery Court
Judge: Stuart Robinson
Disposition: The Hinds County Chancery Court reversed the approval by the Mississippi State Department of Health of an amended application for a certificate of need (CON) to St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital (St. Dominic) for a facility to be located in Madison County, Mississippi.
Case Number: G-2004-248

Note: The motion for rehearing is granted. The prior opinions are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor.

  Party Name: Attorney Name:  
Appellant: St. Dominic-Madison County Medical Center, St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital and Mississippi State Department of Health




KATHRYN RUSSELL GILCHRIST EDMUND L. BRUNINI SARAH E. BERRY



 

Appellee: Madison County Medical Center THOMAS L. KIRKLAND, JR. ANDY LOWRY JULIE ANN BOWMAN  

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Topic: Certificate of need - Relocation of a health care facility

Summary of the Facts: The motion for rehearing is granted, and these opinions are substituted for the original opinions. St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital had a licensed capacity of 571 beds which consisted of 453 medical/surgical beds, 35 chemical dependancy beds and 83 psychiatric beds. In June 2002, St. Dominic filed a CON application with the Department requesting approval for a new 100 bed hospital in Madison County. In September 2002, St. Dominic submitted an amended application to the Department seeking to relocate 100 existing beds from its 571 licensed beds in Jackson to Madison County. Madison County Medical Center opposed St. Dominic’s amended CON application and requested a public hearing on the matter. The Department granted St. Dominic’s amended CON application. However, the Department only permitted 50 beds at the Madison facility instead of the 100 beds requested. MCMC appealed the Department’s decision to the Hinds County Chancery Court. The chancellor reversed the Department’s grant of the 50 bed facility. St. Dominic and the Department appeal.

Summary of Opinion Analysis: St. Dominic argues that its amended application was a plan to relocate 100 licensed acute care beds from Hinds County to Madison County. The Department also viewed the application as a relocation and applied the criteria from the 2003 State Health Plan which concern the replacement/relocation of a health care facility or portion thereof. The State Health Officer then agreed with staff recommendations and permitted 50 acute care beds to be relocated to Madison County. St. Dominic argues that the appropriate need analysis in this instance is for a relocation and not an analysis based upon a new hospital. Therefore, St. Dominic contends that it neither ignored the need analysis nor applied a reduced standard of need for a relocation than is provided by the State Health Plan. MCMC argues that St. Dominic’s amended application is not a relocation application but a new hospital application. Therefore, MCMC maintains that the Department should have reviewed the application pursuant to the criteria and standards for new hospitals in counties with an existing hospital rather than as a relocation. The chancellor correctly found that St. Dominic-Jackson Mem’l Hosp. v. Mississippi State Dep’t of Health, 728 So. 2d 81, 83 (Miss. 1998), is applicable and controlling in this case. The facts in both the cases concern an existing hospital’s “relocation” of licensed but currently unused beds from one physical location to another. Of the 196 unused beds or nonoperational beds involved in the St. Dominic case, MMC wanted to “relocate” 64 beds to a proposed North Campus. Likewise here, St. Dominic has a licensed capacity of 571 beds and wanted to relocate 100 beds from Hinds County to Madison County. Applying the holding in the St. Dominic case to the facts in this case, the chancery court found that the proposed hospital was a new hospital rather than a relocation. The appropriate criteria applicable for a new hospital are the “Criteria and Standards for the Establishment of a General Acute Care Hospital.” The chancery court noted that St. Dominic admitted that it could not meet the standard for a new hospital, therefore, remand would be “futile.” The Health Department has defined “relocation” as “the moving of authority to provide a service from one location to another.” A reasonable inference from this definition is that, after the authority to provide a service has been relocated, the transferring facility would no longer have the authority to provide the same service. St. Dominic’s amended application proposes the construction of a completely new building in Madison County, and the new building will be staffed with new medical workers and new equipment, rather than transferred employees and equipment from the Jackson facility. There is nothing in the record that suggests that St. Dominic-Jackson will not continue to provide the same services. It is therefore logical to conclude that St. Dominic’s amended application does not involve “the moving of authority to provide a service from one location to another.”


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