State board rejects Carle surgicenter

[Cuban_Liberal]

State board rejects Carle surgicenter

By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer

CHICAGO -— The Illinois Facilities Planning Board on Thursday said Carle Foundation Hospital hasn't proven there's a need for its proposed surgical center in Coles County.

The board voted 5-0 against Carle's plan to open the outpatient surgical center in a building it purchased in Coles Business Park.

The decision followed the conclusion in a report from the board's staff that Carle's application didn't meet requirements in several areas, including whether the center was necessary to serve patients in the area.

<snip>

Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center officials have been opposed to the plan from the start, and on Thursday said the planning board's vote affirmed its position. "We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome today," SBLHC President Gary Barnett said in a statement....

More: http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2005/02/04/news/news02.txt

[seventythree]

1. Didn't the facilities board

use to make decisions like whether another MRI was needed in an area? I've been in a snit lately at the high tech race between hospitals within a few miles of each other -- first the MRI's, now the heart diagnostic machines, and cath labs when they haven't the ability to go into open heart surgery if the cath goes afoul. Talk about rising health care costs! This duplication is stupid and costly.

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. That's what Carle's cener would be--- a duplication

They were literally going to build it less than 2 miles from Sarah Bush Lincoln HC, which already has a same-day surgery center. What Carle wanted to do was come in and skim off the well-insured/profitable 'cream', while leaving SBLHC all of the Medicaid and Hill-Burton gratis cases.