The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a state appellate court's decision in a case involving Northside Hospital and Northeast Georgia Medical Center over the creation of a radiation therapy service at Northside Gwinnett Hospital.
According to a release from the Georgia Supreme Court, the underlying lawsuit involved Northside's application for a certificate of need to establish the new radiation therapy service at its hospital in Gwinnett County.
Northside contended that its inpatient cancer patients had to be transported offsite for radiation therapy and that patients "experienced negative quality issues, such as missed appointments and delayed treatment."
The Supreme Court said NGMC provided radiation therapy services at three locations in Hall County, including one just across the Gwinnett County line.
The Department of Community Health's staff granted that CON in June 2020. However, Northeast Georgia Medical Center, RCOG Cancer Centers and Vantage Cancer Centers of Georgia all filed administrative appeals to a hearing officer, who later reversed the department's decision approving Northside's CON.
Northside and the Department of Community Health then appealed the hearing officer's decision to the Commissioner, who overturned that ruling and once again granted Northside's CON. Following that decision, Vantage and RCOG filed a petition for judicial review in Gwinett County Superior Court, while NGMC sought review in Hall County Superior Court. All three contended that the Commissioner violated the statutory standard for reviewing the findings of fact of the hearing officer, and that the Commissioner's decision was not supported by substantial evidence.
The Gwinnett County court upheld the commissioner's decision, while the Hall County court reversed the commissioner's decision.
The cases then went to the Georgia Court of Appeals. In the Northside and the Department appeals, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the Hall County trial court.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the commissioner "must 'state with particularity in the order' his reasons for concluding that a hearing officer’s finding of fact is 'not based upon any competent substantial evidence.'" Following that, the Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the state's intermediate appellate court in the case regarding the standard of review by the commissioner. This means the case has been remanded back to the intermediate appellate court for further proceedings
NGHS Chief Legal Officer Andrei Boyarshinov issued the following statement “We are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision and look forward to the Court of Appeals reassessing the case. We still believe our growing care team already provides high-quality radiation therapy services that meet the community’s need.”
