What was looking like a Lovers Lane corridor overcrowded with medical facilities may have just gotten a bit less congested.

Med Center Health on Feb. 22 had its certificate of need application denied for a hybrid freestanding emergency department and urgent care facility it was proposing to build on property in The Hub development along Lovers Lane.

The decision came from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services following a Feb. 14-15 hearing before hearing officer Kris M. Carlton.

Carlton, after hearing testimony from Med Center Health and affected party TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital, issued a final order finding that Greenview had successfully rebutted the presumption of need for the facility under the “nonsubstantive review” of the application.

That shifted the burden of proof to the applicant, and Carlton’s final order said Med Center Health “failed to prove that an additional freestanding emergency department in the identified geographical service area is needed.”

Med Center Health was proposing, through a partnership with Texas-based Intuitive Health, to build the 12,500-square-foot, $14.5 million hybrid facility on a portion of a 10-acre parcel it owns in The Hub.

In applying to the CHFS to build the emergency department/urgent care facility, Med Center Health argued that it would be a unique concept with the potential to make health care more efficient, and in some cases, less costly for patients.

According to the CON application, the planned facility would eliminate the need for patients to choose between going to the emergency room or to an urgent care clinic.

“There should be a number of benefits (with the hybrid facility),” Wade Stone, Med Center Health’s executive vice president, said in December. “The key one is efficiency.

“Patients won’t have to guess if they need to go to the emergency room or urgent care. Both services will be under one roof.”

Stone continued to make that case at the Feb. 14-15 hearing.

He pointed out that having the hybrid facility on Lovers Lane would bring relief to The Medical Center ER on Park Street, which had more than 44,000 patient visits in 2023. It would also allow Med Center Health to relocate its urgent care operation on New Towne Drive.

In its application, Med Center Health projected the new facility to see more than 26,000 patients in its first year of operation and more than 29,000 in the second year.

Stone’s arguments for the hybrid facility were countered mostly by Greenview’s own plans for the Lovers Lane corridor.

In testimony at the February hearing, Greenview Chief Operations Officer Sam Younger pointed out that Greenview has already won CON approval for both a second hospital and a freestanding emergency department in that corridor.

A CON issued in April of 2023 allows Greenview to build a $350 million, 238,405-square-foot facility to be called TriStar Greenview Regional East Hospital on a 30-acre tract adjacent to the Greenview Surgery Center and Graves Gilbert Clinic offices at 484 Golden Autumn Way.

Its 72 beds would be transferred from the 211-bed Greenview hospital on Ashley Circle, meaning there would be no initial increase in the total number of beds operated by the affiliate of Nashville’s HCA Healthcare.

Younger said the new hospital is expected to have a 12,500-square-foot emergency department with 12 spaces for patients, which will be in addition to the 25 treatment spaces at the Ashley Circle emergency department.

Greenview also has approval to build an 11,131-square-foot freestanding emergency department at 478 Lovers Lane. Younger said the freestanding emergency department will have 12 patient service areas.

Plans to construct the freestanding emergency department are moving forward, Younger said, but Greenview CEO Mike Sherrod said plans for the Greenview East hospital are on hold while that CON approval is being appealed by Med Center Health.

“The split campus concept is still being held up in Franklin (County) Circuit Court,” he said. “There should be a ruling this summer, but my understanding is that they can appeal it again.

“Because it’s being contested, we can’t really do anything now.”

Younger said construction has begun on a road leading to the freestanding emergency department, which he expects to be operational by September of 2025.

“There is no need for a second freestanding emergency department,” Younger argued, and the hearing officer agreed in the final order.

While work on the freestanding emergency department moves ahead, Greenview is also working on launching its own ambulance service after gaining CON approval for it last year.

The ambulance service, to be operated in competition with Med Center EMS and called Warren County EMS, is something Greenview has been working toward for at least five years.

Greenview proposed in its latest CON application to spend $1,993,103 to establish the ambulance service with offices in a former medical office building adjacent to Greenview’s Ashley Circle headquarters and build a 3,000-square-foot metal building for ambulance bays.

Starting in 2025, Warren County EMS would operate six vehicles and make an estimated 4,500 emergency runs and 1,500 non-emergency runs in its first year, according to the application.

“We’re moving forward with that (ambulance service),” Sherrod said. “There isn’t a lot to build. We’re buying equipment and working with city and county officials and the current provider.”

The disapproval of Med Center Health’s CON application leaves the not-for-profit hospital weighing its options, which could include requesting a hearing to reconsider the CHFS decision or appealing the decision to Franklin County Circuit Court.

A statement released by Med Center Health said: “Med Center Health is disappointed that the hearing officer did not approve our CON for a new and unique model combining a freestanding emergency department with an urgent care at The Hub.

“We are considering various options to ensure that Med Center Health can continue meeting the needs of our growing community.”