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Baptist: State's decision right one
Novant application for Stokes rejected
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Published: August 30, 2008
The heated rivalry between Novant Health Inc. and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has intensified again in the Triad, this time in Stokes County.
The N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation rejected Thursday the certificate-of-need application, also known as a CON, from Novant Health Triad Region LLC to open a $4 million diagnostic center in King for its Mountainview Imaging LLC unit.
The agency is expected to present the findings on its Mountainview decision within a week.
Baptist said yesterday that it opposed the CON application because the proposed center would have been built near two health-care offices that it operates in Stokes.
"The state made the correct decision in denying Novant's application," said Mike Freeman, the vice president of strategic planning at Baptist. "The equipment proposed by Novant already is available in King and is underutilized."
Novant refuted Baptist's claims, saying that "there is enough demand for imaging services in Stokes County" to warrant the center.
Novant is still considering whether to challenge the state's decision.
"We disagree with the agency's decision," said Michele Grier, a senior vice president and chief operating officer for Novant Medical Group. "We believe Stokes County physicians and residents deserve to have the best possible imaging care available in their community.
"This level of care is not being offered by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Stokes."
Novant got word of the denial the same day that state-regulator Martha Frisone conditionally approved Baptist's CON application for a $100 million, 48-bed hospital in Advance. The site is just four miles from where Novant's Forsyth Medical Center wants to build a community hospital in Clemmons.
Forsyth officials said they want to review Frisone's findings before deciding whether to appeal the Davie County ruling.
Baptist's opposition to the King diagnostic center is the latest counterpunch thrown by the health-care systems over Stokes.
In 2002 and 2003, Novant opposed Baptist's two CON applications to dismantle parts of Stokes-Reynolds Memorial Hospital and move it from Danbury to King. Regulators denied both applications.
The systems have managed to cooperate on projects through the Stokes Health Service Alliance.
The proposal for the Mountainview center includes a CT scanner, digital mammography, ultrasound, digital X-ray imaging and a mobile MRI service. It would have been based at 216 Moore-RJR Road and operate as part of Mountainview's physicians practice.
Baptist said that there were 115 letters and 350 signatures submitted in opposition of Novant's plans for the King center. Novant officials have disputed the method for how the opposing letters and signatures were solicited.
Both health systems are also appealing a state decision that conditionally awarded each hospital 13 new acute-care beds instead of the 26 that each had requested at their existing campuses in Winston-Salem.
Each is hoping to gain the 13 beds that the other received.
Baptist and Forsyth are also appealing Frisone's rejection of their first hospital application. Frisone is reviewing Forsyth's second application and Baptist's third application, both submitted in July. Analysts have said they don't believe that state regulators will approve both hospitals.
Because each CON application cycle is reviewed independently of other applications, Frisone still could approve a Forsyth hospital in Clemmons.
"However, now that our Davie County Hospital has been approved, the state must take this into consideration when they decide the need for another hospital," Freeman said.
"It would be no different than the state taking into consideration the existence of Hugh Chatham Hospital in Elkin if we were proposing a hospital three miles away."
Hugh Chatham is not affiliated with any health-care system.
"The question becomes, with the increased capacity that exists, or will exist, with the Davie County Hospital replacement in Advance, is there still a need for a hospital in Clemmons?" Freeman said. "The answer, at least in my opinion, is no."
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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