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The North Carolina Court of Appeals yesterday ruled in favor of Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville and lifted a temporary stay of construction for the new facility. The action clears the way for construction activities to proceed while the court continues its review of an appeal filed by Lake Norman Regional Medical Center challenging a Certificate of Need granted by the North Carolina Division of Facilities Services.

"We are gratified that yet another obstacle to construction of Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville has been removed," said Ed Case, president and CEO of Presbyterian Healthcare. "We are proceeding on the finalization of design and construction documents and are accepting bids from subcontractors. We will make other construction decisions after receiving guidance from the Novant Health board at its next meeting on May 21.

"The board will determine the proper level of activity that should occur while the appeal process continues," Case said. "We have every intention of providing the residents of Huntersville and surrounding communities with quality health care beginning in late 2004."

Case pointed out that the residents of Huntersville and the State of North Carolina support construction of the hospital. In addition, the state's court system has continued to rule in favor of a community hospital for Huntersville. "The only opposition is Lake Norman Regional and its for-profit parent company in Florida," Case said. "We feel it's disingenuous for Lake Norman Regional to continue its opposition based on technicalities, when it's transparently obvious that it's really seeking to protect the profit margin of its out-of-state parent by limiting convenient access to affordable healthcare.

"Lake Norman Regional's actions ignore the important health care needs of Huntersville residents and the entire Lake Norman region. We feel Huntersville residents deserve local hospital services and we're committed to providing them."