Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. has won certificate-of-need approval to build a hospital in Fort Mill, S.C., ending roughly eight years of court battles and posturing, according to a Charlotte Observer report.
Fort Mill Medical Center will operate as a 100-bed, full-service sister hospital to Tenet's Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C. Bill Masterton, CEO of Piedmont, will also serve as CEO of Fort Mill.
In 2004, South Carolina determined the growing Fort Mill community needed an acute-care hospital. Tenet, Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, N.C., and Novant Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., all applied for a CON to build a Fort Mil hospital in 2006. Initially, Tenet and Piedmont won state approval, but after an appeal, the state granted the CON to Carolinas.
Novant later dropped out of the running, but Tenet appealed again last April. Tenet and Piedmont argued that if Carolinas retained the CON to build a Fort Mill hospital, Piedmont would see a "slow death" from patients leaving to the Carolinas facility, according to the report. South Carolina Administrative Law Judge Phillip Lenski made his final ruling yesterday in favor of Tenet and Piedmont.
In a statement to the Observer, Carolinas said it plans "to review the full findings from the court and make a decision in the near future on what remedies are available…and what our next steps are."
Tenet expects Fort Mill Medical Center will bring in 400 jobs and provide $4.3 million in annual property taxes as a for-profit facility.
More Articles on the Fort Mill Hospital:
Carolinas HealthCare, Piedmont Head to Court Over CON
Presbyterian Healthcare Renews Fight for Fort Mill Hospital
Hospitals Appeal SC's Decision to Award Carolinas HealthCare Certificate of Need