STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

IMPERIAL PALMS NURSING CENTER, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 84-0225

)

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND )

REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, K. N. Ayers, held a public hearing in the above- styled case on June 11, 1984, at Tallahassee, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Richard E. Benton, Esquire

Post Office Box 1833 Tallahassee, Florida 32302

For Respondent: Jay Adams, Esquire

Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services

1323 Winewood Boulevard

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

By Petition for Administrative Hearing dated December 16, 1983, Imperial Palms Nursing Center, by and through its attorney, contests the denial of its application for a certificate of need to construct and operate a 120-bed nursing home in Pinellas County, Florida. Initially, three other applicants for certificates of need to construct and operate nursing homes in Pinellas County were consolidated with the instant case to be heard in a comparative hearing.

Before the date scheduled for this hearing, the other three applicants voluntarily withdrew their petitions for hearing, thereby leaving only Imperial Palms. In the prehearing stipulation submitted by the parties the only issue remaining in dispute is the need for the proposed facility.

At the hearing Petitioner called three witnesses, Respondent called one witness, and one exhibit was admitted into evidence.

Proposed findings submitted by the parties, to the extent included herein, are adopted; otherwise, they are rejected as not supported by the evidence, immaterial, or unnecessary to the results reached.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Petitioner is in all respects qualified to provide the services for which this certificate of need is sought.

   
   

2. Pinellas and Pasco counties comprise one health service district which is subdivided into two subdistricts. Pinellas County is one of these subdistricts. Pinellas County has been further broken down into a northern subdistrict and a southern subdistrict.

   
   

3. Petitioner presented two witnesses who opined that, because Pinellas County had a large percentage of its population over the age of 75, an additional 120-bed nursing facility was needed. These witnesses further opined that the introduction of diagnostic related groups for payment purposes by Medicare would cause hospitals to discharge patients earlier and thereby further increase the need for nursing home beds. No facts to support these opinions were presented.

   
   

4. Applying the bed need methodology contained in Rule 10-5.11(21), Florida Administrative Code, and projecting the population to 1986, there will be a need for 5,229 nursing home beds in District V and a need for 3,869 beds in the subdistrict of Pinellas County. There are presently, both licensed and approved, 8,114 nursing home beds districtwide and 6,819 beds in the subdistrict of Pinellas County. Petitioner's witness testified there are presently 6,630 approved nursing home beds in Pinellas County, of which 5,906 are now licensed. Regardless of which of these figures is accurate, there is a surplus of nearly 3,000 nursing home beds districtwide and a similar surplus in Pinellas County.

   
   

5. Occupancy rates of nursing homes in Pinellas County based upon utilization from July to December, 1983, was 93.2 percent. In Pasco County the occupancy rate for the same period was 87.3 percent. Accordingly, neither the district nor the subdistrict reached the 95 percent occupancy rate needed to justify additional beds in a subdistrict.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

6. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties to, and the subject matter of, these proceedings.

   
   

7. Here the burden is on Petitioner to establish need for the nursing home beds sought by a preponderance of the evidence. Balino v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 348 So.2d 349 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). The evidence presented not only fails to show a need for the additional 120 beds sought by Petitioner, but also shows a very high surplus number of beds in both the district and subdistrict.

   
   

8. From the foregoing it is concluded that petitioner has failed to show a need for additional nursing home beds in either the district comprising Pinellas and Pasco counties or in the subdistrict of Pinellas County where Petitioner proposes to locate this nursing facility. It is therefore

RECOMMENDED that the application of Imperial Palms Nursing Center for a certificate of need to construct and operate a 120-bed nursing home in Pinellas County be DENIED.

ENTERED this 6th day of July, 1984, at Tallahassee, Florida.

K. N. AYERS, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 6th day of July, 1984.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Richard E. Benton, Esquire Post Office Box 1833 Tallahassee, Florida 32302

Jay Adams, Esquire Department of Health and

Rehabilitative Services 1323 Winewood Boulevard

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

David R. Pingree, Secretary Department of Health and

Rehabilitative Services 1321 Winewood Boulevard

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Docket for Case No: 84-000225

Orders for Case No: 84-000225