Broward Hospital Districts Square Off Over Transplants

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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Two Broward County hospital districts are in a legal dispute about which one of them should be allowed to offer an adult kidney-transplant program.

The North Broward Hospital District, which is known as Broward Health, filed a legal challenge after the state Agency for Health Care Administration denied its application for what is known as a "certificate of need" to operate a kidney-transplant program.

The challenge, which was sent to the Division of Administrative Hearings this month, also contests a decision by AHCA to give preliminary approval to a kidney-transplant program for the South Broward Hospital District, which does business as Memorial Regional Hospital.

The certificate-of-need process, which leads to disputes throughout the state, involves the state reviewing and deciding whether to approve such things as the addition of new hospital programs and construction projects.

In the legal challenge, Broward Health said the Agency for Health Care Administration made the kidney-transplant program decision in August. Broward Health alleges that Memorial Regional "failed to demonstrate that its proposal was superior to the proposal made by Broward Health and failed to demonstrate that its proposal was financially feasible."

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.