Duke-UNC Medical Facility Need Certificate Spat Gets Do-Over

An administrative law judge must reconsider awarding the University of North Carolina Health System a certificate of need to build new a acute care facility in Durham County because she considered matters outside the scope of its application, a state appeals court said.

The certificate-of-need regulation limited the ALJ to considering information contained in the health system’s application as to whether it was feasible to build on the primary proposed construction site, the North Carolina Appeals Court said Tuesday. The ALJ, however, also examined evidence of alternative sites and the likelihood that the county would alter a zoning ordinance currently ...