(WHAS11) - The folks in Bullitt County can’t get state regulators to bend and give them permission to build a full service hospital.  So they’re going over the regulators’ heads, straight to state lawmakers.

It’s created quite a battle between Jewish Hospital, which wants to expand its Bullitt County medical center, and the hospitals in Louisville, who oppose their plans.

Jewish hospital’s medical center just off I-65 in Bullitt County has an emergency room, but no overnight hospital beds.  Jewish wants to build 60 acute care beds, but can’t because of state rules.  So Tuesday, Bullitt County residents tried to bypass those state rules, asking state lawmakers to make a law exempting their hospital from those state rules.

Anytime a hospital wants to build or add beds, it has to get permission from the state.  The state health plan was set up to keep one area from having too many expensive, unused hospital beds.   With Louisville hospital beds at just 58% occupancy, neither Bullitt nor any other neighboring county will be allowed to build new hospital beds.  Bullitt County state representative Larry Belcher says that’s unfair.

But the Kentucky hospital association, Louisville hospitals and Governor Beshear’s administration all oppose the move to use state law to add 60 overnight beds in Bullitt County.

Jewish’s medical center south saw 20,000 patients last year, sending 2,000 of them on to Louisville hospitals.  Representative Belcher says that the Louisville hospitals are afraid they’ll lose business if his bill passes.  It did Tuesday, in this committee, with a unanimous vote

But state officials and administrators from other hospitals say they’re worried if one medical center is exempted from following state rules, others will try to do the same. 

Bullitt County has more than 70,000 residents and is the largest county in the state without a full service hospital.  It takes roughly 20 minutes to drive from the Jewish hospital medical center south at the Brooks exit on I-65 to the clump of hospitals in downtown Louisville.