Opinion ID: 1594490
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: department's decision was made upon unlawful procedure and affected by other error of law

Text: A reconsideration of Certificate of Need applications is set forth in ARSD 44:01:14:01. Essentially, a party may request a reconsideration upon a decision based upon new, relevant information which the Department had not considered before or significant changes in the factors or circumstances relied upon by the Department when it reached its original decision. This health care facility submitted three items of new evidence which had not been previously considered. This consisted of population projections for the area and an in-and-out migration data with information pertaining to the existence of alternative services. The Department, summarily, expressed that it refused to consider this new evidence. Instead of opening its mind and then opening the door of reconsideration with relevant evidence, the Department of Health chose to be unyielding with its grip on the single formula and methodology it employed. If this health facility's evidence had been reconsidered, an open mind would see that there was an extensive need for beds existing in the City of Yankton and in Yankton County. In fact, one of the new projections, based upon 1990 population figures, established that the shortage of beds would be as high as 81. There are in-migration residents from the State of Nebraska which further impact Yankton, a historical city near the great Missouri River which separates Nebraska and South Dakota. Data, statistics, projections, and evidence were not even considered upon an application for reconsideration because the agency had made up its mind. As I have said in the past, when government bureaus and agencies go awry, which are adjuncts of the legislative or executive branches, the people flee to the third branch, their courts, for solace and justice. I cannot, in good conscience, join the majority opinion which prevents elderly citizens from having a bed, with medical care and treatment, administered compassionately, in a community where their children and grandchildren reside. I would elevate reality over a single methodology and accordingly dissent. [T]herefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne (1573-1631), Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII. My mind drifts to Ernest Hemingway. And a clod of dirt. Chipped away from the shores of Europe by the sea. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.... Supra. All from whence, Hemingway's great novel was born. And, yes, not a person is turned away from a bed of repose, in his older years, but South Dakota is lesser  in spirit. A refrain also comes to my mind: And crown thy good, with Brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.