How the Georgia file is built
Every value comes from the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) weekly CON tracking report, read from DCH's site, the Digital Library of Georgia or Internet Archive copies. Each value links to the weekly report that printed it.
Sources
The weekly tracking report lists letters of intent; new, pending, approved, denied, withdrawn and disqualified applications; and appealed projects. Filing and review dates, site, county, contact and estimated cost come from every issue that lists a project. The decision comes from the first issue that lists it as approved, denied, withdrawn or disqualified.
History and archive copies
DCH links only the current report. 512 weekly issues were read: 295 from the Digital Library of Georgia, which holds the report from 1996 to 2021; 169 from DCH's site; and 48 from Internet Archive copies of reports DCH has since removed. 58 weekly slots from January 2016 to October 2026 have no public copy.
Matching across issues
Rows are matched by the DCH project number. Where issues print different values, the value most issues print is kept and the others go to the discrepancies column with the first report date that printed each. Letters of intent are matched to applications by applicant name, street address or county and timing; 445 rows carry one, and letters that fit several applications are left unassigned.
Appeals and outside research
The appealed projects section was read by hand for all 74 appealed projects: hearing officer, Commissioner and court steps through the last listing, and the final outcome. The Georgia Court of Appeals docket and opinions add court cases on 19 rows. News and health system pages give dated context on 6 rows.
Checks on every row
- Project number matched across every weekly issue that lists it
- Values that change between issues kept, with the first report date for each (69 rows carry one)
- Ten rows checked by hand against the raw text of the report each decision came from
- Ten appealed rows checked against the appeal entry and, where a court case is attached, the docket
- Build checks for unique project numbers, ISO dates, numeric costs and no curly quotes
What the file does not have yet
- No staff recommendation, conditions or charity care commitment. DCH keeps its decision letters and evaluations in an online repository closed to automated reading; one evaluation came from an archive copy.
- No public copy exists for July 2022 or for November 2022 to June 2023 (34 weeks, with only May 9, 2023 found). 27 rows have no decision in the reports read, and applications filed and decided inside the gap are missing.
- Opposition is a flag. The reports name the opposing party only when a case is appealed.
- Letters of determination and non-reviewability are in the reports but are not CON applications and are not rows.
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