Kernersville Outpatient Surgery submitted a certificate-of-need in March to the North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation, but is drawing opposition from other hospitals and surgery centers in the area, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
Here are five key notes on the controversy:
1. Cone Health, two ambulatory surgery centers and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center filed comments opposing Kernersville Outpatient Surgery’s CON. The comments claim the ASC would duplicate services.
2. Novant Health is affiliated with Kernersville Outpatient Surgery and is hoping to make the center operational by April 2018. The center would move two operating rooms from Forsyth Medical Center.
3. The new surgery center is estimated to cost $9.8 million, far beyond the $5 million threshold for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to hold a public hearing. Kernersville Outpatient Surgery’s hearing was held in May and a decision is expected by September.
4. The opposing parties claim a new surgery center won’t fill the needs of the community; instead, it would “relocate underutilized, existing operating rooms,” according to the report. Additionally, Premier Surgery Center opened a freestanding ASC within the service area for the Kernersville center.
5. The opponents also questioned the cost of procedures from Novant’s projected average procedural charge, as some are higher than recently-approved CON applications for another ASC.