The state's decision to deny the proposed move of Franklin County's only hospital from Louisburg to Youngsville has been appealed by the corporate owners of the medical facility and their partner in the project, Rex Healthcare.

In an appeal filed Friday with the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, Rex Healthcare and Health Management Associates of Naples, Fla., asked the state to take another look at their bid to relocate the 70-bed Franklin Regional Medical Center from the centrally located county seat to a site a few miles from the Wake County line.

"We believe that original application was very solid," said Melody Hunter-Pillion, a Rex spokeswoman. "We're just following the process so that another ear can hear the application."

The proposed $103 million project would have replaced the aging facility in Louisburg that was bought by HMA in the 1980s.

Franklin Regional failed to prove the new hospital was necessary and failed four critical components of a state evaluation necessary to win approval for the move, according to ruling handed down at the end of April by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Service's Certificate of Need section. This marks the second time this project has been denied a Certificate of Need and the second time that rejection has been appealed.

Rex joins as partner

After its first bid was rejected, HMA, a for-profit corporation, took on Rex, a wholly-owned nonprofit subsidiary of the state-supported UNC Health Care System, as a partner.

Of the four criteria cited in the latest rejection, one related to poor patient care in the death of a 76-year-old patient after elective surgery.The death prompted a federal investigation into the hospital, and the results were quoted in the state's rejection of the hospital's proposed move.

In an April news conference held with other members of the General Assembly, Rep. Alma Adams, a Guilford Democrat and head of the Legislative Black Caucus, asked HMA and Franklin Regional to keep the hospital in Louisburg.

Rep. Lucy T. Allen, a Franklin Democrat, echoed Adams' calls for the hospital to remain in Louisburg and work with residents to draft a better option.

"I'm not surprised that they are going to exhaust their avenues with the ... process," Allen said Tuesday. "I expect they are looking for ways with various parties on how they could make the move more palatable."