Mission, an operating division of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, has recently struggled to secure CONs for two freestanding emergency departments. The certification for its application for a freestanding ED in Candler, N.C., was reversed by a judge in an earlier separate decision, while the most recent reversal is over a freestanding ED in Arden, N.C.
In his June 22 decision, Judge David Sutton ruled that NCDHHS erred in granting the CON for Mission’s planned Arden location because the agency did not hold a public hearing prior to approving the application.
A spokesperson for Mission Health told the Citizen Times that the public hearing requirement was not included in the state’s application process as a precaution to prevent the spread of COVID and noted that other CONs were approved across the state “during the more acute phases of the COVID public health emergency that did not have public hearings.”
NCDHHS is appealing both reversals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
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