BANGOR – Frustrated in its attempt to provide cardiac catheterization services to the Greater Bangor community, a local hospital has asked the court to intervene.

St. Joseph Hospital filed a petition Monday with the Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta trying to force Department of Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon to issue a decision on its application for a Certificate of Need.

“It’s a puzzle to me why [the department] has been so unresponsive to us – we’ve been nothing but cooperative in the process from the beginning,” hospital attorney Joseph Kozak of Augusta said Tuesday, noting that DHS was supposed to have issued a response almost two months ago.

“Given the fact that [DHS] has been stonewalling us on what the next step is going to be, we had no choice … but to take this extraordinary step,” Kozak said.

“St. Joseph Hospital hopes that through the intervention of the court a final decision will be rendered on this matter so that it can avoid the unnecessary costs associated with further delay and apply its resources more appropriately toward implementation of this important project,” the attorney wrote in a news release issued Tuesday.

Kozak said he hoped the court would hear the matter next week. He said the hospital had asked for an expedited review, but the court denied the request on Tuesday.

St. Joseph Hospital not only is frustrated with the department’s failure to take a position, according to Kozak, but also with DHS allowing Eastern Maine Medical Center to have a hearing before the Maine Certificate of Need Advisory Committee.

Under CON guidelines, EMMC isn’t entitled to a hearing since it already submitted written comments to the department, according to Kozak.

Besides, DHS “botched” the hearing planned for last month when it failed to notify participants that the advisory committee wouldn’t have a quorum, he said.

Not surprisingly, EMMC has a different take.

“No one on the DHS staff has clarified whether we can do one or the other,” Eastern Maine Healthcare Vice President Jerry Whalen said Tuesday, referring to the choice between a public hearing or written testimony.

DHS invited EMMC to submit written comments as to whether St. Joseph’s application fit within the CON guidelines early in the process, according to Whalen.

It was later, after the staff made a recommendation to approve St. Joseph’s application that EMMC and any other affected party were able to choose whether to submit written comments or appear at a hearing, he said.

But the EMMC official agreed with Kozak on one issue.

“We also have been frustrated with the process – it’s been cumbersome and confusing and not timely,” Whalen said.

For his part, DHS spokesman David Winslow, who was aware of the court petition, said he understands St. Joseph’s frustration.

“They’d like an answer and we’d like to give them an answer, but we believe a public hearing has been lawfully requested by [EMMC] and we don’t believe we can give a decision until we accommodate that request, and we’re making every human effort to do so,” Winslow said.

The spokesman said no date has been set for the CON committee hearing because of the difficulty in scheduling a time to meet committee members’ needs.

“This is a hotly contested policy debate between two hospitals, and we’re trying to manage that the best we can,” Winslow said.