How the Kentucky file is built
Every value comes from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services: its CON Online application database, the scans posted there, and the monthly Certificate of Need Newsletter. Each row links its CON Online record.
Sources
The CON Online record gives the received date, facility, county, facility type, project, legal name, contact, CON number, capital expenditure, fee, batching cycle, review type, decision and date, disapproval criteria, public notice date and certificate number. Each record's document list gives every scanned document with its title and upload date.
Decision scans and appeals
815 decision scans were read by OCR for the ordering paragraph, review criteria findings, presumption of need, conditions, counsel, signer and order date. Court and reconsideration documents on CON Online were read by hand: 38 rulings or filings on 32 rows.
Newsletter and history
The Cabinet's certificate of need page now holds only the 2026 newsletters. Issues from September 2015 to October 2025 were read from Internet Archive copies, 113 issues in all. The newsletter gives hearing notices with the hearing officer and case number, scheduled decision dates, applications received and actions. Until mid 2017 it also listed letters of intent, 303 of which are in the file.
Matching across documents
Rows are matched by CON number. When CON Online, the newsletter and the final order give different costs, dates or decisions, both values are kept and each source named. When an approved CON is later revoked, CON Online overwrites the decision; the file keeps the approval and shows the revocation in a later status column.
Records request and outside research
22 newsletter issues are on neither the Cabinet's site nor the Internet Archive; the fix is an Open Records Act request to the Division of Certificate of Need. Local news gives dated context on 3 large or contested projects, and 5 more rows record that no coverage was found.
Checks on every row
- CON number matched across CON Online, the newsletter and the decision scan
- Both values kept, with each source named, when documents disagree (71 rows carry one)
- Ten rows checked by hand against the scanned decision document on CON Online
- Fifteen rows checked against the scans for the ordering paragraph, order date, findings and signer
- Proposed orders, motions and scheduling orders skipped when picking the decision document
What the file does not have yet
- Newsletter issues for July 2021 to December 2022, November 2017, November 2020 and November and December 2025 are missing, so rows with events in those months have blank newsletter columns.
- Kentucky publishes no staff report. Nonsubstantive reviews are decided by final order and contested formal reviews by a hearing officer.
- Orders longer than seven pages were read on their first 3 and last 4 pages, so findings on the middle pages are not columns.
- There is no letter of intent list after mid 2017, so the Pipeline tab holds pending applications only.
- Affected parties are named on 121 rows. Hearing requests and notices of appearance were not read.
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