Plans for a medical facility that would bring a state-of-the-art cancer center to the area remain stalled as the planned center’s supporters claim that local health care groups have blocked the center’s approval.
The medical facility is planned as part of a development owned by Caddis Development Group LLC.
The site plan and special use permit for the property on 1525 W. Lake Lansing Road were approved by the East Lansing City Council last week.
A group of physicians known as Compass Health Care submitted a certificate of need application to the Michigan Department of Community Health, or MDCH, last July 2011 with proposed plans for an outpatient cancer treatment center near the development.
Construction on the cancer treatment center cannot start without approval of the certificate of need, a complicated process that one Lansing physician said has been tampered with in part by university officials.
A certificate of need must be submitted to a state commission made up of health care representatives who oversee the operation and implementation of medical services and facilities in the state. The application then must be approved by the MDCH.
New regulations related to the approval process went into effect in November 2011, and the MDCH continues to review Compass Health Care’s application under the new regulations, said Angela
Minicuci, a public information officer with the department.
Chris Abood, a Lansing neurosurgeon with Compass Health Care, said officials from Sparrow Health System and MSU have attempted to block the application’s approval by citing concerns about new cancer treatment technology that might be used by the center upon completion.
But officials with both groups dispute those claims.
Laura Hall, a spokeswoman with Sparrow Health System, said in a statement the organization was sticking to commonly followed state practices.
“Sparrow (Health System) supports the state certificate of need process,” Hall said in the statement. “These guidelines are well-established in the state and must be followed by everyone.”
Richard Ward, CEO of MSU HealthTeam, the medical practice made up of faculty from three MSU colleges of medicine, said the university has not engaged in any attempt to block the application.
He said MSU HealthTeam approached the commission with concerns related to the center’s ability to meet its planned patient volume.
“We tried to get clarification language in the certificate of need regulations … just in terms of how new entities can meet the requirements in the certificate of need threshold (as it relates to the number of patients served),” he said.
According to regulations surrounding the certificate of need approval process, any new radiation therapy service must project 8,000 equivalent treatment visits for each radiation therapy machine. Equivalent treatment visits reflect the average length of time one patient spends at the facility in one treatment visit.
Ward also said in an email that the MSU HealthTeam will wait to see how the approval process plays out.
Abood said the physicians are disappointed in what he claims is backlash from both parties opposing the application.
“From a community standpoint, we’re very unhappy that the university and the health system are trying to prevent this world-class technology from coming to the area,” Abood said. “It’s very frustrating.”
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