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St. Joseph's Appeals Hospital Bid Rejection

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By LIZ BLEAU, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

TAMPA - St. Joseph's Hospital is appealing last month's decision rejecting its bid to build a new hospital on Big Bend Road in Riverview.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration ruled against St. Joseph's and gave the nod to a competing bid by the Hospital Corporation of America to relocate its South Bay Hospital from Sun City Center to another Big Bend Road site.

The appeal was filed Friday with the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

St. Joseph's has the support of the Sun City Center retirement community, which turned out in large numbers to oppose South Bay's plan to move eight miles north to Big Bend Road, a major east-west road that connects U.S. 301 to U.S. 41.

Ed Barnes, a member of the Sun City Center Community Association board of directors, said his 11,000-member organization was willing to assist and support St. Joseph's in any way it could in its appeal.

"We think it was a bad decision, based on a faulty model," he said.

The agency used short-term data, looking only to hospital needs through 2012 instead of to 2018 and 2020 when the demand is forecast to increase greatly, he said.

The decision, Barnes said, gives HCA control of the market, since it owns both South Bay and nearby Brandon Regional. The St. Joseph's bid gave south county residents a choice in services.

In granting approval of South Bay's bid, which is for a $216 million, 112-bed facility, the agency said the hospital lacked sufficient space to expand at its current site on State Road 674.

The most recent decision was the second round of applications by both hospitals to build on neighboring sites in the growing Big Bend Road area.

In the first round in 2005, the agency rejected both St. Joseph's and South Bay's bids.

South Bay's approval came with conditions. The agency said it must keep emergency services and some other medical services in Sun City Center and provide shuttle bus transportation from the current hospital site. Many residents in Sun City Center use their golf carts to travel to the hospital.

The appeal process can be a lengthy one, said St. Joseph's spokeswoman Lisa Patterson. St. Joseph's, which appealed the June 2005 decision, is still awaiting word on a decision in that case; it is not expected until summer. The hearing before an administrative law judge was held in last fall.

Patterson said St. Joseph's feels closing South Bay Hospital "would be a substantial loss to that community and a much better option is to keep the existing hospital in place and allow St. Joseph's to build an additional hospital on Big Bend Road that would provide additional care, offer competition that promotes quality and cost-effectiveness, and give residents a choice of hospitals in southern Hillsborough County."

South Bay Hospital had no comment on the appeal, pending consultation with its legal department.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at lbleau@tampatrib.com or (813) 865-1557.

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