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Competitor won't appeal hospital's move
By WILL VAN SANT BROOKSVILLE -- Oak Hill Hospital's chief executive says he will not prolong his company's legal challenge to a rival's relocation effort, bringing to an apparent conclusion two years of feuding over the county's growing health care market. Oak Hill had asked a state administrative law judge to block Brooksville Regional Hospital's proposed move from Ponce De Leon Boulevard in Brooksville to a 92-acre site at Lykes Dublin Road and State Road 50, west of the city. The judge on Tuesday rejected Oak Hill's claim that the move would compromise quality health care for residents of eastern Hernando County and siphon off Oak Hill's business. The judge ordered the state Agency for Health Care Administration to issue a certificate of need to Brooksville Regional, a regulatory approval that certifies the relocation will serve legitimate needs and not duplicate services. The certificate will likely be issued within the next month and will not be contested. "We will abide by AHCA's ruling in this case," Jaime Wesolowski, chief executive at Oak Hill, said Friday. "We will appeal no further." In June, administrative law judge Eleanor M. Hunter heard two weeks of testimony from both sides of the relocation debate and waited six months to issue her decision. Wesolowski called the judge's work "pretty thorough." However, Wesolowski said he still had doubts on how the relocation, which brings Brooksville Regional from 8 to 5 miles away from Oak Hill, would affect services for residents in eastern Hernando County. Also, the executive expressed concern that medical specialists such as neurosurgeons would be less likely to work in Hernando County if greater competition between health care providers keeps hospitals small. "They typically like to go to bigger hospitals," he said of such specialists. "In the next five to 10 years, it could make a difference." Despite the misgivings, Wesolowski said it was time for the hospitals to focus more on being valuable assets to residents, rather than battling one another. Brooksville Regional's executive director, Thomas Barb, whose company mounted a considerable public relations campaign of behalf of relocation, welcomed Wesolowski's decision with "great relief." "We have been playing with this issue for two years now," Barb said. "I think most of the people in the community want this to be over now." The new hospital, which Barb says could be completed in two years, will have 91 beds, all of them in private rooms. Current plans call for it to sit on 20 acres of the new site, with the remaining 72 acres used for retention ponds, park area and office buildings. Brooksville Regional and Spring Hill Regional hospitals are owned by Hernando County and leased and operated by Health Management Associates of Naples. Oak Hill is owned by HCA Inc. of Nashville, Tenn. -- Will Van Sant covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com .
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