Hagan a healthy choice in Snow Hill

U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan's tour of eastern North Carolina continued Saturday with visits to Greenville and Snow Hill.

In Greenville, Hagan, D-Guilford, talked with voters at Pitt Community College about her rural education policy before heading to Snow Hill for a walk through the Kate B. Reynolds Community Health Center with Mayor Don Davis and Health Center Chief Executive Officer Doug Smith .

The focus of her tour is reinvesting in rural roots - and in Snow Hill, specifically, it was exploring the importance of access to health care in rural areas.

"I'm very impressed by this," Hagan said. "I've been talking about electronic medical records during my whole campaign."

As part of her plan for revitalizing rural areas, Hagan discussed with Smith the possibility of patients being able to have their medical records on a small card that can be read electronically. She said patients having constant access to their records would prevent medical tests and procedures from being performed unnecessarily - reducing the overall cost of health care.

 "I think that we need to have (changes to the health care system)," Hagan said. "Each one of us needs to have electronic medical records.

"When we go to a hospital (or) community health center, we ought to be able to access our own medical records so that a physician knows what sort of drugs we're taking and what are the latest x-rays (and CAT scans) we've had so ... we don't have to do the same test over and over again," she said.

Administrative costs could be reduced by 30 percent, further lowering how much patients are spending on treatment, Hagan said.

Will and Angie Tyer, school teachers from Snow Hill, were at the health center for an appointment for their 6-day-old baby when they happened to see Hagan touring.

"(Will) just about fell over dead when he saw her," Angie said. "We got out of the car and he said to me, ‘Come on over - it's Kay Hagan!"

The Tyers have both been supporters of the democrat since she announced her candidacy for senate in February.

"We support Kay because she'll get higher pay for teachers and want a greater focus on education from the federal level," Will said. "We're just getting tired of a Republican-controlled Congress.

"We've had a democratic senator in the past in North Carolina and we'd love to send another democratic senator (to Washington_ in the tradition of John Edwards."

As far as the benefits facilities like the Kate B. Reynolds Community Health Center are to rural communities, Hagan said it was a quality of life issue. Having electronic medical records would improve healthcare for those living in low-populated areas - and that was something she didn't think her Republican opponent, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, has mentioned in her campaign.

"I certainly don't think that Sen. Dole has a (plan for) electronic medical records that she's been talking about," Hagan said. "It certainly hasn't been implemented if she has."

 Justin Schoenberger can be reached at (252) 559-1075 or jschoenberger@freedomenc.com.