Legal battle keeps planned cancer treatment center on hold

Cherokee County cancer patients could some day benefit from a medical project that has been tied up in the court system for the past six years.

The Spartanburg Regional Heathcare System (SRHS), the parent company of Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, and Cancer Centers of the Carolinas (CCC) are involved in a court dispute over the placement of a linear accelerator. The medical device is used to treat cancer patients with radiation therapy and a major part of cancer treatment programs.

Spartanburg Regional has asked the South Carolina Court of Appeals to overturn Circuit Court Judge Ernest Kinard's ruling in March of 2008 that both SRHS and CCC could have linear accelerators. No court date has been set.

Spartanburg Regional rejected a settlement offer on June 25, 2008, from Cancer Centers of the Carolinas. The settlement was proposed in a letter to Spartanburg Regional CEO Ingo Angermeier.

In the settlement proposal, CCC offered to fully cooperate with Spartanburg Regional and drop the lawsuit so both groups could get a linear accelerator.

Upstate Carolina Medical Center and Gibbs Regional Cancer Center, which is operated by Spartanburg Regional, announced plans in 2003 to partner on a project to establish a cancer treatment center in Gaffney. CCC applied for its own linear accelerator in 2002 and wants to develop another radiation therapy service in Spartanburg.

Cancer Centers of the Carolinas is a physician-owned, private practice with 25 doctors. It treats 6,000 new patients annually in eight locations in the Upstate. About 18 percent of their patients live in Cherokee County.

CCC President Dr. Charles Bowers said the physician group wants to settle the legal battle so Upstate cancer patients can get the care they need.

"Cancer Centers has on more than one occasion attempted to meet with Ingo Angermeier at Regional to settle this dispute," Bowers said. "In June, I sent a letter to Ingo, putting the peace offering in writing and giving 30 days for SRHS to respond. There was no response whatsoever to the letter. We are ready to stop all of these legal proceedings and focus on helping cancer patients get well."

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System has not responded to the settlement offers because it wants to see that the state health plan is followed properly, hospital spokesperson Chad Lawson said.

Spartanburg Regional contends the court rulings granting a Certificate of Need to Cancer Centers of the Carolinas go against a state health plan designed to provide an equal distribution of healthcare services.

According to the state health plan, Lawson said only one application can be chosen when the applications are deemed competing.

The Spartanburg Regional and CCC applications for a linear accelerator were compet- ing applications because both would place a linear accelerator in the Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union county planning area.

"We believe very strongly in the state health plan," Lawson said. "We will continue with the appeal process because we feel the state health plan needs to be interpreted accurately."

Hospitals must apply to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) for a Certificate of Need before building medical facilities and purchasing equipment. Spartanburg Regional was awarded a Certificate of Need in 2003 for the one linear accelerator that the state health plan allowed DHEC to approve in Spartanburg, Union and Cherokee counties.

Cancer Centers of the Carolinas has contested the DHEC decision in the court system. The ongoing legal action has placed an indefinite hold on plans to build a cancer treatment center in Gaffney.

Cherokee County Council agreed in June of 2003 to sell a 6.3 acre parcel on North Limestone Street to Upstate Carolina Medical Center. The sale was made with the condition the hospital build a cancer treatment center on the site.

Despite the long appeals process, Upstate Carolina Medical Center Administrator Joe Howell said the hospital remains interested in the project.

"There is certainly a need in our community," Howell said. "We will continue to partner with Spartanburg Regional Medical Center to see if we can make this thing happen."