The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals moved with unusual quickness to address Brookwood Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Health System’s requests to argue against Trinity Medical Center’s relocation to the former HealthSouth building on U.S. 280.

It took only about a month for the Court of Civil Appeals to uphold its earlier ruling, which reinstated Trinity’s certificate of need and ordered Montgomery District Judge Jimmy Pool to rule in favor of Trinity, after he had earlier blocked the certificate of need.

We applaud the court for swiftly moving to clear the path for Trinity to move to U.S. 280, and we appeal to Brookwood and St. Vincent’s to stop the legal wrangling. The only other possible step the two medical systems could make is to take their cases to the Alabama Supreme Court, which would put off Trinity’s move for an undetermined amount of time.

We appreciate that officials at Brookwood and St. Vincent’s are only looking out for their respective systems’ economic interests. However, at this point, we believe that all parties concerned should put saving lives above making money.

Shelby County citizens in desperate need of medical care drive U.S. 280 daily, and their lives would be much improved by being able to stop 15 to 30 minutes sooner.

This process should end now. All medical systems concerned should abide by the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals ruling, and Trinity should move forward with plans to ready the hospital for patients and staff.

If Brookwood and St. Vincent’s choose to take their arguments to the Supreme Court, we only hope the court will return a ruling as quickly as possible. Shelby County citizens have waited far too long to have a hospital, and every day that goes by is too much time without one.

The We Say is the opinion of the Shelby County Reporter editorial board.