Commissioner upholds Redmond perinatal program
The Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health has confirmed a determination that Redmond Regional Medical Center can move forward with its perinatal program.
The hearing officer concluded, “there is neither significant under-utilization in Floyd County, nor in the proposed service area generally.”
Redmond’s plan calls for a 28,000 square feet of unit, most of that in new construction. It includes nine labor-deliveryrecovery-postpartum rooms and one cesarean-section room. A seven-bassinet nursery is also included in the construction plan.
Redmond projects that, during the first year of its obstetrical service, it will have between 700 and 731 obstetric-patient admissions and projects 770 obstetric admissions by the second year.
Redmond filed for permission to begin Basic Level One Perinatal services in 2017 and the state, through its certificate of need process, approved the application March 26 of 2018.
Floyd Healthcare Management filed an appeal in April but a hearing was not conducted until December 3. Up until now, Floyd Medical Center has been responsible for 95.6 of the births to Floyd County mothers.
The hearing officer affirmed the decision to approve the CON, prompting Floyd to make one last appeal, on February 26, to the office of the Commissioner who has ruled in Redmond’s favor.
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