In all, four healthcare providers are expected to apply for a Certificate of Need to build a Fort Mill hospital.

So far, only Tenet Healthcare has submitted a completed application. However Carolinas HealthCare System, Hospital Partners of America and Presbyterian Healthcare are all expected to submit their applications Friday, the deadline set by the Department of Health and Environmental Control, the department that regulates hospital construction and expansion.

Once that deadline passes, the task of choosing which company will get to build a 64-bed hospital in Fort Mill Township will ultimately rest with two individuals at DHEC - senior staff reviewer Mary Fechtel and the director of DHEC's Bureau of Health Facilities, Joel Grice.

"When an application comes in, it is assigned to a reviewer who will make a recommendation to me," Grice said. "Ultimately, I sign the letter, but it's not done in a vacuum."

"We do look at the reputation of the applicant and we will find out the track records of out of staters from the states they operate in," Grice said.

Along with Fechtel there is a project review committee which acts as a fact gathering and checking body.

When Fechtel and the committee review the exhaustive application each healthcare provider submits, they will be looking for a number of things including a detailed description of the project, a site map, a list of all the costs involved with a construction estimate from a licensed engineer, a timetable for construction, previous experience in the healthcare field and numerous other criteria.

She said it usually takes about two weeks to go through an application.

The need for a 64-bed facility in Fort Mill as determined by DHEC presents a unique situation for the agency. DHEC uses a formula that takes data from previous years into account to project the future healthcare needs for the state's residents and generally ties that need to hospitals serving particular areas.

However, if DHEC determines a hospital needs more than 50 new beds, such as the 64 needed in Fort Mill, it will allow the construction of a new hospital facility, Grice said.

With 64 beds needed Grice said DHEC decided not to automatically award the beds to Piedmont, the closest hospital to the Fort Mill area. Instead it is taking competitive bids for the project.

Grice said he doesn't expect a decision to be made on who gets to build the hospital until this summer. Then he expects to have to defend his decision in the Administrative Law Court when one or more of the companies not chosen likely files a lawsuit.