Bert Fish Foundation has filed a lawsuit alleging the recent merger of public Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and private Florida Hospital in Orlando, which is part of Adventist Health System, violates the state's Sunshine Law, according to a Daytona Beach News-Journal report.
The Sunshine Law establishes a basic right of access to most meetings of boards, commissions and other governing bodies of state and local governmental agencies or authorities.
Bert Fish Foundation, which donated the medical center to the Southeast Volusia Hospital District in 1996, argues the district's board violated the Sunshine Law by prohibiting the public from attending meetings where the merger was discussed and ultimately approved.
Jonathan Kaney Jr., who serves as co-counsel for the foundation called the closures "so egregious that I am completely perplexed," according to the report.
A representative of the hospital board previously told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the closed meetings were given the go ahead by the board's attorney.
Read the Daytona Beach News-Journal report on Bert Fish Medical Center.
Read more coverage on Bert Fish Medical Center:
- Halifax Health's Late Push Fails to Pull Bert Fish Away From Adventist Health
- Florida's Bert Fish Officially Merges With Adventist Health
The Sunshine Law establishes a basic right of access to most meetings of boards, commissions and other governing bodies of state and local governmental agencies or authorities.
Bert Fish Foundation, which donated the medical center to the Southeast Volusia Hospital District in 1996, argues the district's board violated the Sunshine Law by prohibiting the public from attending meetings where the merger was discussed and ultimately approved.
Jonathan Kaney Jr., who serves as co-counsel for the foundation called the closures "so egregious that I am completely perplexed," according to the report.
A representative of the hospital board previously told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the closed meetings were given the go ahead by the board's attorney.
Read the Daytona Beach News-Journal report on Bert Fish Medical Center.
Read more coverage on Bert Fish Medical Center:
- Halifax Health's Late Push Fails to Pull Bert Fish Away From Adventist Health
- Florida's Bert Fish Officially Merges With Adventist Health