Carolinas HealthCare System

Carolinas HealthCare System is appealing the state’s decision to award 27 acute-care beds to its chief competitor.
The N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation granted the 27 beds to Winston-Salem-based Novant Health Inc. in October. Novant is the parent company of Charlotte-based Presbyterian Healthcare, which plans to split the beds between its hospitals in Matthews and Huntersville.
Carolinas HealthCare filed a competing application for the beds in May.
The appeal is being handled by the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings. An administrative law judge has 270 days to recommend a decision to the state’s Division of Health Service Regulation regarding the appeal.
“We believe we have made a very compelling case to get at least some of these beds, if not all of them,” says Scott White, spokesman for Carolinas HealthCare.
Carolinas HealthCare proposed adding 27 private rooms to Carolinas Medical Center, its 874-bed flagship hospital in Charlotte. That project was expected to cost more than $1.2 million.
“If we have these extra beds, these would be more people we could care for,” White says.
He says Carolinas Medical Center is the busiest hospital in North Carolina, with patients being referred from across the region to see specialists.
The beds — the first to be added in Mecklenburg County since 1990 — were identified as a necessity in the 2008 N.C. Medical Facilities Plan. That plan, which is updated annually, determines the need for new health-care facilities and services across the state.
Presbyterian hasn’t had an opportunity to review Carolinas HealthCare’s appeal yet, says spokeswoman Marcia Meredith. “However, I can tell you that we look forward to working with the state as we move forward so that our approved hospital-expansion plans will allow us to meet the growing health-care needs of the Huntersville community.”
White says the cost of the projects is another reason Carolinas HealthCare is appealing. “Certainly the state is concerned about driving up the cost of health care,” he says.
Presbyterian’s plans to add 15 acute-care beds at its Huntersville hospital would cost $26.6 million. That project would add a tower with 69 beds, including the 15 new ones. Plans also call for expanding the hospital’s women’s-services program.
Plans for the Matthews hospital would add 12 beds, for a total of 114, at a cost of $570,000. That project would include the renovation of existing rooms.
All facilities and services are subject to the state’s certificate-of-need law, which prohibits health-care providers from acquiring, replacing or adding certain facilities, services and equipment without state approval.
The law is intended to reduce unnecessary increases in health-care costs by eliminating duplication of medical facilities, services and equipment.
Charlotte-based Carolinas HealthCare is the largest health-care system in the Carolinas and the third-largest public system in the nation. The system owns, leases or manages 23 hospitals.