Marion Hospital Corporation v. Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board

Marion Hospital Corporation v. Illinois Health Facilities
Planning Board,
No. 1-00-1696 (Ill. App. Ct. March 29, 2001)

After the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board ("Board") granted
a permit allowing a hospital-physician joint venture to construct an ambulatory
surgical center, a rival hospital sued. The hospital argued that the joint venture
did not comply with the statutory requirement that a proposed surgicenter be
approved "only if one of the following conditions" existed:
(1) There are no other surgicenters within the geographic area; (2) All of the
other surgicenters and hospital outpatient surgery rooms within the geographic
area are utilized at or above 80% occupancy; or (3) The facility will provide
services not currently available in the service area, or existing underutilized
services in the area have restrictive admission policies.

The joint venture conceded that it did not satisfy the first two conditions
and did not present evidence establishing the third condition. The Court therefore
remanded the case to the Board with directions to make specific findings as
to whether the third condition was met.