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Photo by Jon Anderson
Colin Luke, an attorney for the Hoover Health Care Authority, talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Health Care Authoirty Chairman Alan Paquette talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Councilwoman Khristi Driver talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
The Hoover Health Care Authority wasted no time in filing a letter of intent to seek a Certificate of Need from the state for a new ambulatory surgery center and diagnostics center in Riverchase following the Hoover City Council’s approval of zoning changes and financial incentives Monday night.
The Health Care Authority filed the letter of intent with the State Health Planning and Development Agency’s Certificate of Need Review Board on Tuesday morning in Montgomery, Chairman Alan Paquette said at a noon press conference at Hoover City Hall.
The letter of intent is required at least 30 days in advance of the actual application for a Certificate of Need. The state requires entities to get approval before opening health care facilities to make sure that money is not wasted with unnecessary duplication of health care services and that facilities are built in the most appropriate locations and address legitimate needs.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said Riverchase Corporate Park is the perfect location for an ambulatory surgery center and diagnostics center because of its convenient location along Interstate 65 and Valleydale Road and easy access to U.S. 31.
It’s a prime location to serve not only residents of Hoover, but other people who live along the Interstate 65 corridor and in Jefferson and Shelby counties and other parts of the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, Brocato said.
One of the city of Hoover’s key objectives for many years has been to increase the health care offerings in the city, he said.
With a population of almost 100,000 people, Hoover is the state’s sixth largest city and the only one of those without a hospital, he said. While this would not be a hospital, the trend in the health care industry is to move away from long hospital stays and move toward ambulatory surgery centers, and having those centers in areas that are convenient to where people live is important, he said.
“There’s a hole here,” Brocato said. “It just makes perfect sense.”
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
Colin Luke, an attorney for the Health Care Authority who is familiar with the Certificate of Need process, said this location in Riverchase is tailor-made for this type of facility. “If you had to design it from scratch, this would be the perfect location for a health care campus with a focus on wellness,” Luke said.
The fact that the Health Care Authority is proposing to put the surgery center and diagnostics center in an existing office building (being vacated by Regions Bank) makes this an attractive proposal, he said. Having the building, beautiful grounds, ample parking and sewer service already there makes it that much more cost-effective, he said.
The Health Care Authority has done research to determine what health care options are lacking in Hoover and surrounding areas and what services people want to see, and this facility will provide those, Luke said. Part of that research included finding out how far people have to go to get those services now and how long they have to wait to get appointments, he said.
“This community which is growing, really needs health care here, as opposed to downtown [Birmingham] or on the other side of town or even in the [U.S.] 280 corridor. It’s hard to get from the Riverchase corridor to the 280 corridor,” Luke said. “If you’ve got health care appointments in the middle of the day and you need proximity to schools and you need proximity to home, it just works to have these facilities based in the neighborhood.”
Luke said he has done a lot of health care work across the country, and “this is the best health care campus I’ve ever seen.”
Brocato said the city knows it has to sell the idea to the Certificate of Need Review Board, but “we feel very, very confident we have all the facts and figures they would need to give this a positive look.”
Luke said it’s important to note that the Hoover Health Care Authority is the one applying for the Certificate of Need and not the eventual health care company or companies that would be operating the facility.
The Health Care Authority plans to seek proposals from health care operators once the Certificate of Need is granted, he said. The basis for the application will be focused on the need in the community and not on the need or desire for business by a particular entity, he said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Health Care Authoirty Chairman Alan Paquette talks about plans for the Riverwalk Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama, during a press conference at Hoover City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.
Luke said he wouldn’t be surprised to see some out-of-state health care companies express interest in operating a facility in Riverchase because of the opportunity and demographics of the area and how important health care is to this community. Having said that, “we’re not out to hurt any local facilities; we’re out to grow the opportunities,” he said.
All of Alabama has a health care shortage with a need for more physicians, Luke said.
Hoover Councilwoman Khristi Driver, the council’s liaison to the Health Care Authority, noted there are only about 6,000 square feet of medical office space available in the Hoover area. “The need for this is extreme,” she said.
There is a shortage of some medical services in the area, and “we want to step into that gap and make sure that our citizens and the people in surrounding communities have opportunities for convenient and quality health care,” Driver said.
Luke said the Health Care Authority plans to file its application for the Certificate of Need in January, and it usually takes four to six months to get a decision. The Certificate of Need Review Board meets the the third Wednesday of every month in Montgomery to consider cases, he said.
If there is opposition, a judge can be appointed to hear arguments, Luke said. The Health Care Authority hopes there won’t be opposition, but if there is opposition, the authority is prepared for it and believes it has a compelling story to tell, he said.
Read more about the actions taken by the Hoover City Council Monday night to prepare the way for this development, including tax rebates and other financial incentives for the development company, Healthcare Resources.
