Parker Hudson secured a most difficult and impactful victory on Wednesday, August 16th for Baptist Hospital of Miami, the flagship hospital of the Baptist Health South Florida system. Administrative Law Judge Garnett Chisenhall concluded that Baptist's CON application for an inpatient bone marrow transplant program should be approved, rejecting a challenge by the University of Miami Hospital, which currently operates the only bone marrow transplant program in Miami-Dade. This comes on the heels of a denial of a prior Baptist application for a bone marrow transplant program that was filed less than two years earlier and litigated for Baptist unsuccessfully by another firm.
Parker Hudson succeeded in overcoming the University of Miami's expected res judicata claim by demonstrating a substantial change in material facts and circumstances since the prior application was denied. The addition of this bone marrow transplant program is essential to complete Baptist's mission to establish a fully comprehensive cancer treatment and research program and is likely the single most important and highest profile project at this time within the Baptist system—one of the largest health systems in Florida.
Kudos to the CON litigation team of Seann Frazier, Jon Rue, Marc Ito, Grace Kopache, Kelly Hubbard, and Sara Fulghum, led by Seann Frazier with an active role being served by Jon Rue.