Swedish Health Services in Seattle has received a certificate-of-need to build a five-OR surgery center after the Washington Supreme Court ruled the state's department of health appropriately determined there was a need for such a facility, according to a copy of the ruling filed Sept. 23.
Swedish Health Services applied for the CON to build the ASC in Bellevue, Wash., in Nov. 2002, which was opposed by Overlake Hospital Association and Evergreen Healthcare. The Washington DOH determined there was a need in East King County for the ASC and issued the CON to Swedish.
Overlake and Evergreen challenged the decision, working through the courts until the Washington Court of Appeals reversed lower court rulings on the basis that the DOH's decision to issue the CON "was arbitrary and capricious because it was based on an erroneous interpretation of the governing statutes and a misapplication of its own regulations," according to the ruling.
Swedish and the DOH challenged this ruling on the basis that "the Court of Appeals failed to accord sufficient deference to the Department's interpretation of its own regulation."
The Washington Supreme Court reversed the decision on the basis that the DOH made the correct decision to issue the CON to Swedish for several reasons including that the DOH did not ignore the state legislative goal of controlling costs and the DOH properly interpreted regulations to assure a sufficient supply of publicly available ASCs.
View a copy of the ruling about the Swedish Health Services surgery center (pdf).