Trident petitions state Supreme Court to hear Berkeley County hospital case

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) -- Trident Medical Center has taken its fight against Roper St. Francis Hospital and the state's health department to the highest court in the state.

Attorneys for Trident Medical Center filed a writ of certiorari last week, asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case. The filing comes about a month after an appellate court affirmed its February decision that Berkeley County can support two hospitals.

In a statement from Trident Health, CEO Todd Gallati said there are several smaller hospitals in South Carolina that suffer because of a lack of patients and inability to recruit specialists.

"Current statistics from the South Carolina Health Data website indicate that 11 of the 14 South Carolina hospitals with 55 or fewer beds cumulatively lost more than $20 million in 2013. If Trident Health invests more than $150 million in a new hospital, we want to guarantee its success for decades to come by being able to offer a full array of services," Gallati said.

At its core, the case are a pair of two similarly sized hospitals planned for Berkeley County: Roper's acute care hospital at Carnes Crossroads in Goose Creek, and Trident's Berkeley Regional Medical Center in Moncks Corner.

"However there is more to this case than ape pars on the surface," Trident's most recent filing reads. "At its core, this case fits squarely and directly into the important and ongoing debate over 'the proper role of the judicial branch in reviewing final administrative decisions of an executive branch agency under the Constitution of South Carolina and under the statutory law of our State.'"

The filing says the Department of Health and Environmental Control gave approval for Roper's new facility despite it conflicting the State health Plan, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals because, according to Trident, two "fundamental principles of administrative law" were ignored. Namely, DHEC did not follow its own laws, and the courts did not enforce those laws.

Roper's president and CEO David Dunlap said the hospital's administrators were disappointed to hear that Trident was continuing to file appeals in the case.

"Roper St. Francis should be allowed to build a new hospital at Carnes Crossroads in Berkeley County, and that fact has been affirmed by every court and board that has reviewed this case during the last six years. We couldn't agree more," Dunlap said. "A new Roper St. Francis hospital in the center of growth in Berkeley County would make it easier on our patients who are traveling to downtown Charleston, West Ashley or Mount Pleasant."

He went on to say that the continued legal filings are hurting the people of Berkeley County who have been waiting for years on health care options closer to their homes.

In 2012, a judge with the state's Administrative Law Court upheld an earlier decision by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control that said two hospitals could be built in the county.

In the past, Trident has said that two hospitals in Berkeley County would "negatively impact healthcare costs and possibly result in the closing of one or both hospitals."