RECEIVED BEFORE THE STATE OF ALABAMA CERTIFICATE OF NEED REVIEW BOARD IN RE:
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NORTHEAST ALABAMA
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REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
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PETITION FOR DECLARATORY RULING
COMES NOW Petitioner, Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center ("RMC"), and
files this Petition for Declaratory Ruling pursuant to ALABAMA CERTIFICATE Of Need PROGRAM Rules And Regulations § 410-1-9-.01. Stringfellow Memorial Hospital ("Stringfellow") has submitted plans to the Alabama Department of Public Health ("ADPH") to add open heart
services and facilities without first obtaining the required Certificate of Need ("CON").1 RMC hereby requests this Certificate of Need Review Board ("CONRB") to (1) declare that
Stringfellow must first apply for and obtain a CON in order to construct a facility that will offer the new institutional health service of open heart surgery and (2) that Stringfellow shall not proceed with this project without first providing sufficient proof to the CONRB that the amount
of capital expenditures, new annual operating costs, and major medical equipment fall below the thresholds for CON review. I.
1.
PARTIES INVOLVED
Petitioner RMC is a public 338-bed hospital located in Anniston, Calhoun
County, Alabama, that provides open heart surgery. RMC received a CON to provide open heart services in 2002.
1In addition to adding two (2) open heart operating rooms, Stringfellow's plans submitted to the ADPH also include constructing two (2) non-open heart operating rooms, sixteen (16) same-day surgery prep suites, nine (9) PACUs, four (4) holding bays, and a connectingcorridor. This project will include 23,600 square feet of new construction and cost approximately $7.5 million.