Stringfellow Memorial Hospital in Anniston, Ala., is planning a $7.5 million expansion of its surgical wing. An error in the preliminary expansion plans by the hospital architect, however, showed that Stringfellow was planning to offer open-heart surgery when in reality the hospital had no such plans.
This error caused Stringfellow rival Regional Medical Center in Anniston, the only hospital in the area that offers open-heart surgery, to request the CON board review Stringfellow’s supposed plan to offer open-heart surgery. The board ruled that Stringfellow cannot provide open-heart surgery without first applying for a certificate of need. If, as Stringfellow representatives have said, the hospital is not planning to add this service, the ruling should not affect the construction project.
Read the Anniston Star report on Stringfellow Memorial Hospital.
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