Louisville-based KentuckyOne Health is abandoning its plans for a $55 million inpatient facility in Bullitt County, Ky., according to Louisville Business First.
Before Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and Saint Joseph Health System in Lexington, Ky., merged in 2012 to create KentuckyOne Health, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare received a certificate of need from the state in 2008 to add inpatient beds to an outpatient facility in Shepherdsville, Ky., now called KentuckyOne Health Medical Center Jewish South.
The certificate of need indicated the project would cost $55 million. Shelly Neal, president of KentuckyOne Health's ambulatory services, said the project would have made Medical Center South the only inpatient hospital in Bullitt County, according to the report. However, JHSMH officials delayed acting on the certificate of need because the KentuckyOne merger was already pending.
In early April, the state revoked the certificate of need that would have begun the project at KentuckyOne's request. According to Ms. Neal, several main factors led to this decision. The merger that created the KentuckyOne system operates three hospitals in Louisville directly north of Bullitt County and one hospital to the south. Additionally, the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has spurred the national trend in which inpatient volume is declining while outpatient care is on the rise, according to the report.