Broward County on Thursday dropped out of a legal fight about a proposed Florida Department of Health rule dealing with the state's trauma system.
Broward, UF Health Jacksonville and the Public Health Trust of Miami-Dade County, which operates the Jackson Health System, filed challenges last month, arguing that the department overstepped its legal authority in proposing the rule.
\The county filed a notice Thursday in the state Division of Administrative Hearings dismissing its case, though it did not detail the reasons.
The challenges by UF Health Jacksonville and the Public Health Trust of Miami-Dade continue and are scheduled for a hearing that will start April 18 before Administrative Law Judge Darren Schwartz.
The proposed rule would set numbers of trauma centers that would be allowed in 19 different areas of the state --- an issue that has been highly controversial in the hospital industry in recent years. The challengers have raised a series of objections to the proposal.