FORT MILL TOWNSHIP -- While officials at the Department of Health and Environmental Control consider proposals from four companies competing for the right to build a hospital in the Fort Mill area, the applicants are taking their campaigns directly to the people.

Presbyterian Healthcare and Hospital Partners of America each took a turn pitching their plans to the Fort Mill Town Council Friday. Piedmont made its case to the council last month.

The City of Tega Cay has set aside the council chamber on Tuesday, April 12, for a public meeting with the hospital companies. As of Tuesday Piedmont, Presbyterian and Hospital Partners had committed to attend the meeting. Carolinas Medical Center has expressed interest in attending as well, according to city staff.

Why are these companies spending so much time and energy trying to win over people who aren't directly involved in deciding who gets to build a new Fort Mill hospital?

Simple: although the residents of York County, specifically in Fort Mill Township, don't get to decide who wins the highly coveted Certificate of Need from DHEC, they are the ones who will use the new hospital, and DHEC takes their opinions very seriously, said Joel Grice, director of DHEC's Bureau of Health Facilities and Services Development.

Grice will choose the winning applicant, but he won't be making the choice in a vacuum. Along with an intense review of each of the four Certificate of Need applications by a DHEC senior staffer, a project review committee will also scrutinize them.

The agency will also consider letters of support from residents, physicians, professional groups, government bodies and anyone else who takes the time to express an opinion.

However, not all letters are created equal, Grice said.

"A lot of times it's a form letter," he said. "Form letters don't carry as much weight as an individual letter."

Community support isn't the only thing DHEC will consider. The agency will also be eying the efficiency of the design of each proposed building, the ability to expand, the cost and financial feasibility of each plan, any additional services proposed, the reputation of each healthcare provider and numerous other criteria.

In efforts to win support from the community that will translate into letters of support each group is highlighting particular aspects of their plans that differentiate them from one another.

How they differ

While each healthcare provider essentially plans to build the same thing, a 64-bed full service hospital, each one is a little different.

Piedmont's plan, dubbed Fort Mill Medical Center, offers plenty of room for expansion on its 40-acre site, but that's not the most important thing the company has going for it according to President and CEO Charles Miller.

"We have a proven track record of being committed to York County," Miller said. "We've invested close to $130 million in Piedmont since '95."

Though Piedmont Medical Center had problems with York County recently over billing practices, Miller thinks the fact that, "we aggressively addressed the pricing issue," will work in Piedmont's favor.

Plus, as one of the two for profit providers competing, Piedmont can tout the fact it would be paying close to $2.7 million in property taxes on its hospital. The bulk of that money, or roughly $1.47 million, will go to the Fort Mill School District, Miller said. The countywide school system would get about $270,000 in tax revenues from Piedmont while approximately $530,000 would go to the York County Operating Fund. The Town of Fort Mill could expect about $380,000 in taxes from the hospital.

Hospital Partners Of America gets to raise the tax flag too. The town of Fort Mill wouldn't see any money from that facility, but the school district and county taxes would be in the same range as those paid by Piedmont, Chief Development Officer Terry Linn said.

The Hospital Partners proposal, which is tentatively being called Lake Wylie Regional Medical Center, at $78.4 million is less expensive than the Piedmont proposal at $107.1 million so the assessed value the taxes would be based on should be less for Hospital Partners.

Other incentives

The company has other things going for its proposal as well, according to Linn.

"This will be our only hospital in the area. We want to make it a primary destination, not a referral service to Charlotte or Rock Hill," Linn said. All of the other applicants have at least one larger hospital in either Charlotte or Rock Hill.

Other selling points of the Hospital Partners plan include a linear accelerator for cancer treatment. It would be the only hospital-based linear accelerator in York County. The Rock Hill Radiation Therapy Center, a CMC practice, has two linear accelerators for outpatient services. Hospital Partners believes the ability to provide both inpatient and outpatient cancer treatment would be a benefit to the residents of York County, according to the company's Certificate of Need application.

The company also plans to include 12 skilled nursing beds in the hospital. These beds would not count toward the 64 acute care beds DHEC says the county needs. The beds would provide a spot for patients who need a reduced level of care but who would not yet be ready to go home.

Another carrot Hospital Partners is dangling before county residents is the prospect of the company moving its corporate headquarters from Charlotte to Fort Mill Township.

The two nonprofit companies competing would not have to pay property taxes on the hospital buildings but could pay some taxes on medical office buildings they plan to construct.

"Who's paying those taxes? You're either going to pay more taxes or more for healthcare," Said Kati Everett, Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Presbyterian Healthcare.

Everett said people are charged less when they go to a nonprofit hospital, and when insurance costs are kept lower businesses have to pay less for healthcare coverage for employees, which makes the climate "more attractive for businesses to come and to stay."

But CMC can make a similar claim about enhancing the business environment because it too is a nonprofit organization. So Presbyterian needs to set itself apart from CMC and drum up support in the township.

"We're in Fort Mill, not trying to protect a hospital in Pineville (N.C.)," Everett said. CMC chose to pursue a site in Rock Hill with its application, and runs the CMC-Pineville hospital.

Also Presbyterian strives to keep patients happy. She said 99 percent of patients who completed a patient satisfaction survey from Presbyterian's Huntersville N.C. hospital rated their experience as excellent. At the Presbyterian hospital in Matthews, N.C., 100 percent of the patients who completed the survey rated their experience as excellent, Everett.

Presbyterian's proposed hospital would be called Presbyterian Hospital - York, and is estimated to cost $83.5 million.

CMC, as a public nonprofit healthcare provider, lauds its commitment to provide healthcare for all patients regardless of their ability to pay, said spokesman Scott White.

"We serve 58 percent of Medicaid patients who leave South Carolina and go to North Carolina," White said.

Last year CMC hospitals in Mecklenburg County provided more than $100 million in care to indigent patients, he said.

"That's an example of our dedication to providing care to the uninsured," he said.

CMC already has a presence in York County, White said. The hospital group has five physician practices in Rock Hill and the Rock Hill Radiation Therapy Center.

White said the company believes people should get healthcare in their home community, but with the other hospitals in the CMC system, if someone needs specialist care not available in the York County hospital, the patient could easily be transferred to one of its facilities that could provide the care.

Also the CMC plan, which has yet to be named, comes in the cheapest at just under $73 million, White said.