The state should require hospitals planning to close or eliminate core medical services to give 180 days written notice, the head of a statewide consumer advocacy group said Tuesday.
That six months lead time should involve a review that would include a third-party assessment and a public hearing, Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, told members of a Georgia House study committee meeting in Augusta.
Wellstar Health System provided only 30 days notice last year when it closed the Atlanta Medical Center, Coyle said.
“It happened so fast, and the community is still devastated,” she said. “We want this to be a much more public process.”
The study committee is looking for ways to modernize Georgia’s Certificate of Need (CON) law governing capital investments in the construction of new hospitals or the addition of new health-care services. The law requires project applicants to demonstrate a need for the new hospital or service in a given community.
Coyle said 180 days is how long it typically takes applicants to go through the CON review process, so it makes sense to require that much lead time before a hospital can shut its doors.
While the Georgia Department of Community Health is currently considering a 180-day notice requirement, she said she would like to see the General Assembly codify it into state law. Hospital closures aren’t just affecting the Atlanta region. Jimmy Lewis, CEO of HomeTown Health LLC, told the committee 15 rural hospitals in Georgia have closed in the last 20 years.
“When we lose a hospital, we lose an economic generator,” Lewis said. “When these close, that community goes away.”
Coyle said requiring hospitals to give 180 days notice of an impending closure would give community leaders time to identify and obtain sources of funding to keep the facility open.