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Court Examines Fairmont Hospital Issue

Posted on: Friday, 7 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Lawrence Messina

At least one state Supreme Court justice questioned Wednesday whether Fairmont General Hospital will be forced to close or merge with United Hospital Center if its rival is allowed to build a new $265 million facility nearby.

"It's another example of the big guys chewing up the little guys," Justice Larry Starcher told Robert O'Neil, a lawyer for United, during a hearing in the hospitals' court battle.

But Starcher and some of his colleagues questioned whether that possibility should trump a chance to improve medical care in north- central West Virginia by building a modern hospital there.

"The focus ought not be whether it will have a deleterious effect on an existing facility," Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard said. "The focus ought to be, what are we doing for patients?"

The five justices are expected to rule by year's end on United's bid to restore its plan to replace its 50-year-old building.

The state Health Care Authority, which regulates health care spending, approved United's application to move from Clarksburg to the new site along Interstate 79 in Bridgeport. But such a move would place United within a 10-minute drive of Fairmont, prompting the Marion County hospital to appeal the HCA's decision last year.

A Marion County judge reversed the HCA in November, citing state rules that required a new hospital site to be within five miles of its current location. United's proposed site is eight miles away. The rules have since expanded the possible range to 15 miles, but United has balked at paying another $265,000 to the HCA for a revised application.

Thomas Casto, a lawyer for Fairmont General, urged the justices Wednesday to apply the five-mile standard. Maynard questioned whether it should apply at the expense of a $265 million investment in the region.

"But if this is in violation of the rules, that's just as bad," Casto said.

Joined by a lawyer for the agency, O'Neil said no one contests that United's existing building is too outdated to serve the region properly or be renovated. The HCA properly applied its overall rules for approving a new hospital, they argued.

"There is no site within five miles," O'Neil said. "You can't plant a 318-bed hospital just anywhere."

Fairmont General had planned to build a new, $100 million hospital also along I-79 and not far from United's proposed site. That project lost a key partner and was scuttled after the HCA approved United's replacement hospital plan in October 2003.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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