MONTGOMERY — Members of the state’s Certificate of Need Review Board voted to delay approval of a new ambulatory surgery center in Montgomery on Wednesday.
Southern Orthopaedic Surgery Center proposes to develop a freestanding, non-hospital based, limited multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center specializing in orthopaedics and neurosurgery in Montgomery. Upon completion, the center will have six operating rooms, two procedure rooms, nine pre-operative rooms and 14 phase I recovery stations.
Baptist Medical Center South and Jackson Hospital oppose the project. Multiple Certificate of Need Review Board members said they were delaying a vote on the proposal until their next meeting to give both sides more time to reach an agreement.
Officials from Jackson and Baptist South claimed at the meeting there wasn’t sufficient demand for the new project in Montgomery and criticized the project for receiving some funding from private equity.
Officials with Southern Orthopaedic said the new center is necessary to serve Montgomery’s aging population and growing surrounding areas.
Dr. Perry Hooper III, one of the doctors who spoke in favor of the Southern Orthopaedic Surgery Center, said it would be “extremely difficult” for more talks with Baptist South to lead to some type of agreement between both sides.
“I was in on several of these meetings when these conversations were starting about starting our own separate ASC with Baptist as a partner or expanding the surgery center. Every time it ended with, ‘We don’t know who you guys are.’ If it was said once, it was said fifteen times. It would be extremely difficult,” Hooper said at the meeting.
In other news, the Certificate of Need Review Board on Wednesday approved Montgomery’s Baptist Medical Center South's emergency proposal to add thirty treatment areas to its emergency room department and to renovate the registration and waiting area to reduce overcrowding. The proposal was opposed by Jackson Hospital.
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