child birth center for Fayette Community Hospital

may be a possibility some day, say hospital

officials, but not right away.

The

need definitely exists, said hospital director

Darrell Cutts. "We've delivered 14 babies so

far without [an obstetrics/gynecology

ward]," Cutts told the Fayette County

Commission recently. "In the emergency room,

the elevator, the parking lot..."

The

hospital's most immediate need for expansion, he

said, is for more inpatient rooms. The hospital

was licensed for 100 beds when it was created in

1997, but originally held rooms for only 50 beds.

As

use of the hospital has increased, Cutts said,

those beds have filled up, and the hospital has

had to resort to putting some people in

semiprivate rooms, increasing the number of beds

to 65.

Finishing

out the hospital's third floor to provide space

for 100 beds in private rooms will cost about $3

million to $4 million, he added.

Piedmont

Hospital, parent company to Fayette Community,

paid the $48 million cost of building the

hospital up front, leaving it debt free.

"But they're not interested in having us

come to them for three million here and four

million there," said Cutts.

Future

needs for specialized equipment and expansion

projects will have to be financed, he said.

County

commissioners agreed to create a hospital

authority to help arrange financing for projects

of that type. Through an authority, the private,

nonprofit hospital can issue tax-exempt bonds and

save money on interest.

If

some day the hospital is able to add child birth

services, that also would cost about $4 million,

Cutts said.

But

that requires a certificate of need from the

State Health Planning Agency, hospital

comptroller John Miles explained. And currently

Fayette doesn't meet the state agency's criteria.

The

formula, he said, has to do with the population

of the area, and its distance from other

facilities that offer OB/GYN facilities.

"We're

getting closer [to meeting the state criteria],

but I don't think we're there quite yet,"

said Miles.

If

the hospital were allowed to offer child birth

facilities, he said, "It would be an

immediate success."

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