Roper St. Francis wins its seven-year fight to build a Berkeley County hospital

Roper St. Francis Healthcare can build its long-planned hospital in Berkeley County after the South Carolina Supreme Court declined to hear a rival’s last appeal.

The court turned down Trident Health’s request to review a lower court decision that allowed both Roper St. Francis and Trident to build 50-bed hospitals in the county, The Post and Courier reported. The justices denied Trident’s petition Friday, according to the court’s docket. They did not explain the denial and did not comment on the merits of either project, meaning both can go forward, the newspaper reported.

Roper St. Francis claimed victory Monday and said it will begin design work right away on a hospital and medical office building in the Carnes Crossroads community, on land it has already set aside.

“We could not have asked for a better way to close out 2015,” said David Dunlap, president and CEO of Roper St. Francis, in the health system’s announcement. “We filed our request to open a new hospital on Dec. 10, 2008. The need for convenient, quality healthcare was strong at that time, and that need only has grown during the last seven years. We plan to do everything we can to move this project along as quickly as possible.”

How the fight unfolded

Both health systems said they were drawn to Berkeley County by its housing and population growth, The Post and Courier reported.

Trident, part of HCA, was first to seek permission from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control in 2008, proposing to expand its Moncks Corner medical clinic into a full-service hospital. Roper St. Francis filed a few months later, proposing to shift 50 beds from downtown Charleston to Carnes Crossroads, off U.S. Highway 17-A between Summerville and Goose Creek, the newspaper reported. The two sites are about 12 miles apart.

DHEC issued certificates of need for both projects in June 2009. Trident, which argued the county could support only one new hospital, appealed. It contended in court that state health planning rules did not allow Roper to move beds from its downtown hospital to one that had not yet been built, and that the two applications competed with each other, court records show. Roper defended both approvals but argued that if its certificate were reversed, Trident’s should be too.

An administrative law judge upheld both certificates in September 2012. The South Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in February and reissued its opinion in May, and Trident then asked the Supreme Court to review it, according to court records.

Roper St. Francis said in February that the appeals court’s decision was unanimous and affirmed “that there is a need in Berkeley County for two hospitals.”

Trident has said for years that it would drop its Moncks Corner plans if both hospitals were allowed, The Post and Courier reported. It was not clear Monday whether that was still the case. Trident CEO Todd Gallati and spokeswoman Rebekah Faulk did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment.

What comes next

Roper St. Francis expects to hire a design firm for the hospital and a nearby medical office building within 30 days, The Post and Courier reported. The health system said site work could begin as early as the end of 2016.

Allen Carroll, regional chief executive officer for Roper St. Francis and CEO of Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in West Ashley, will lead the construction and development effort, the health system said. Scott Broome, a Roper St. Francis service line director for oncology, has been named chief executive officer of the future hospital.

Broome estimated the hospital could open in 2018 or 2019, the newspaper reported. He disputed Trident’s argument that the county can’t support two 50-bed hospitals, pointing to population growth and the thousands of jobs coming to big employers such as Volvo’s planned car plant north of Summerville.

“The only thing that has changed from seven or eight years ago is more growth and job announcements,” Broome said, according to The Post and Courier. “And that will only continue until we have a hospital up there.”

A year of expansion

The ruling caps a year in which Roper St. Francis opened an Express Care clinic in Summerville and created the Roper St. Francis Health Alliance, which it calls the first clinically integrated physician network in the Tri-County area, the health system said.

“Berkeley County residents want and deserve more healthcare options,” Dunlap said. “After all this time, we are elated to finally have the go-ahead to be able to serve them. Our goal is to be the community’s chosen healthcare partner for innovative, patient-centered care, and we look forward to making that a reality.”

Roper St. Francis operates Roper Hospital on the Charleston peninsula, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in West Ashley and Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital. It said in July that it had nearly 5,600 employees.