Hospital lobbies for growth money

The day after CarolinaEast Medical Center officially opened a new 37-bed expansion, members of its administration, staff and hospital board started looking for money to enlarge its emergency room and maternity facilities.

The hospital president, two vice presidents, and two members of the board flew to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for three days of meetings with both of the state’s U.S. senators and several representatives key to finding federal funds to help.

They are particularly looking for money that may be available because of military growth in the region and the impact it is having on those hospital functions, said Megan McGarvey, director of hospital public affairs.

The Navy closed its Halyburton Medical Center aboard Cherry Point air station after a decision by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It still operates a clinic there but not for dependent maternity care or delivery, or general military dependent emergencies.

CarolinaEast is feeling the change, McGarvey said.

“When the Navy discontinued medical services at Cherry Point in 2006, labor and delivery visits rose significantly. We had about 170 in fiscal year 2006 and, without final numbers, when 2009 just finished we had about 1,150-plus. That’s a pretty significant increase in those visits,” she said.

The hospital is also seeing an increase in emergency room use from military personnel and dependents insured by TriCare, McGarvey said. And that is coming just as civilians generally are losing jobs and insurance coverage and resorting more to emergency room visits for more primary care medical needs.

CarolinaEast had just shy of 1,800 emergency room visits in fiscal 2006, she said, compared to about 5,300 in fiscal 2009.

McGarvey said the increase to 350 beds coming last week were part of a state Certificate of Need specifically allocating their use and additional maternity capacity was not a part of it.

“Right now we are able to take care of the need, but it is a significant increase,” she said. “It might be an area we ask to increase the next time we are given permission for expansion.”

“One of the very good things is that our leadership has had keen foresight about what we are anticipating for military growth in the area,” McGarvey said. “It’s not just about ‘Grow the Force’ but the arrival of F/A-18 and Joint Strike Fighter squadrons and – I read in the Sun Journal – a possible counter-terrorism regiment with 1,100 more and their dependants.”

The meetings included talks with Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. Kay Hagan, Rep. Walter Jones, Rep. Mike McIntyre, Rep. David Price and others, and the staff of Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who met personally with the hospital board and administration at a recent meeting in New Bern.

“It was the first time we have gone to them and we met with a number of them in a short period of time,” she said. They met individually with the congressmen.

Attending from the hospital staff were President Ray Leggett; Rosanne Leahy, vice president of nursing; Leslie Allen, vice president of facilities and safety; CarolinaEast Medical Center Board members Norman Kellum and Lonnie Pridgen; and consultants.

McGarvey said: “No firm proposal was made. They really wanted to make sure the congressional delegation understands where we are … and, if at all possible, to garner federal government resources to support future expansion.”

“We’d like to be able to consider that option,” McGarvey said. “We are trying to lay the groundwork now to make sure we stay a little ahead of the curve.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.