CONSULTING THE PUBLIC STUDIED FOR NEW CLINICS

State health officials proposed rules Wednesday that would require better
notification to the public when new medical facilities - including
methadone clinics - are planned.

The rules, which would allow greater participation from affected
communities, are the result of a legal fight in Shelby County over a
planned methadone clinic in Saginaw.

State Certificate of Need Review Board members reviewed the first draft of
the rules Wednesday and will discuss them at their March 16 meeting.

"We'll take some time, we'll study them, digest them and see what happens,"
said chairman Dr. Swaid N. Swaid.

In October, residents won their court case against the Shelby County
Treatment Center, which was to open on U.S. 31. Residents, represented by
Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens and attorney Mickey Johnson,
argued the clinic was granted a state certificate of need without its
neighbors being properly notified.

The new rules mandate that applicants seeking state approval make stronger
efforts to notify the public. That includes publishing their application
request in the community's newspaper for two consecutive weeks.

The rules also mandate that any major change in an application, including
the location of the facility, be made public.

The Shelby County Treatment Center originally was scheduled to open in
Calera, but the application was changed to Saginaw. Circuit Judge Dan
Reeves found that the change was not made public until it was too late for
meaningful protest.

State health officials in previous meetings have agreed that clinic owners
Susan Staats-Sidwell and Dr. Glenn Archibald followed the current state
rules. Clinic attorney David Belser said during Wednesday's hearing that
clinic owners should not have been penalized because of flaws or
deficiencies in the way the current rules are written.

Complaints about notification and procedure should have been directed
toward the state, he said. "They were not entitled to a preliminary
injunction, temporary injunction, and they sure weren't entitled to a
permanent injunction."

The Shelby County Treatment Center would have been the county's first
methadone clinic. Methadone is a prescribed drug taken by mouth to reduce
the desire for drugs such as painkillers and heroin.

Belser said the clinic owners have an appeal pending in the Court of Civil
Appeals in Montgomery.