CHI Memorial moves forward with cancer services in North Georgia despite Erlanger bid

RINGGOLD, Georgia (WDEF) – CHI Memorial Hospital is moving ahead with its plans to provide cancer services to northwest Georgia.

But the Chattanooga hospital warns that an appeal filed by Erlanger Medical Center could delay the start of service in Ringgold.

Chattanooga’s two largest hospitals are in competition to provide medical services to north Georgia and as of now CHI Memorial seems to have the upper hand.

Memorial wants to provide cancer services from Memorial Parkway in Ringgold.

And it called a news conference today to discuss that move.

CEO Larry Schumacher tells us “We competed for a certificate of need with Erlanger Health systems, and the state of Georgia issued us the certificate of need and they denied the certificate of need to Erlanger health systems.”

Meanwhile , Erlanger has filed an appeal of that decision.

Memorial CEO Larry Schumacher told a crowd of supporters at the proposed site that the appeal could delay cancer treatment for many in that area.

“We’re asking Erlanger is to stand down. To not oppose our CON, not to appeal their loss, so that we can begin to provide cancer services to patients and people of north Georgia quickly. If this gets tied up in a process that could take months or years to resolve it..and that would mean that people would have to wait that much longer to have care close to home.”

Schumacher says his hospital’s plan is to begin providing full-service cancer services starting in September.

“Cancer is one of the fastest growing diagnoses that we have, and currently at CHI Memorial we service many cases at our Glenwood campus from the three counties in north Georgia…that additional travel time especially when they have to have 6 or 7 weeks of radiation or oncology is very, very challenging for them.”

Erlanger issued a statement this afternoon in response to the CTI Memorial press conference.

“Erlanger was just notified of this decision yesterday at 5:00 PM. We respect the Georgia Department of Community Health’s decision. Our team is evaluating the various options relative to next steps in the CON process. Regardless, Erlanger will continue to focus on enabling greater access to high quality health care in North Georgia.” – Erlanger Vice President of Operations & Market CEO, Tanner Goodrich