Is Vidant Health Closing Pungo District Hospital? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Should Vidant Health plan to do such: What should be Beaufort County's position?

    Recently, there has been a buzz about what is to become of Pungo District Hospital, now that Vidant Health, who served as a "White Knight" in 2011 and which may have extended the life of that Hospital, may be looking to cut its losses and close the facility. WITN-TV did scratch the surface of this health care / economic conundrum, but their reporting did effectively do just that, and only that - scratch the surface. With the upper management of Vidant Health not sufficiently communicating on the situation there in the waterfront town of Belhaven, North Carolina, WITN-TV did about as well as could be expected in their reporting.

    My source is digging a bit deeper, and as soon as we know more than how this alliance came into being shortly after the Beaufort County government bequeathed Beaufort County's Hospital to Vidant Health, formerly University Health Health Systems (UHS) as of the time of that conveyance, we'll report it.

    What I can report is this cautionary note from Beaufort County Manager Randell Woodruff and, subsequently, my reply to him.

Message to Beaufort County's commissioners from County Manager Randell Woodruff and my (Commissioner Stan Deatherage's) reply to the County Manager:

Commissioners,

    With the news of Vidant reviewing the status of their facility in Belhaven, I feel it would be appropriate for the County to reach out to Vidant officials encouraging them to continue maintaining a presence in the eastern end of the County. This potential closure of the hospital is yet another blow to the Belhaven Community and will certainly be detrimental to the quality of their healthcare as well as residents of Hyde County. The lack of this facility will also make it more challenging to recruit retirees to the Belhaven area. Even if the hospital must be closed due to financial reasons, it is imperative Vidant attempt to keep a facility there such as an urgent care unit where patients can be life-flighted to Washington or Greenville.

    Let me know your thoughts on this and I will proceed with communicating with Vidant officials if this is your preference.

    Thanks!

     Randell Woodruff
      Beaufort County Manager

    Reply from Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage

    This should be a chore for Al Klemm since he worked so diligently for the University Health Systems (UHS), when Beaufort County was in the negotiation phase, where we sought to lease our hospital at the very best deal we could get for our people. Among all sitting Beaufort County commissioners, Commissioner Klemm's fiduciary to Vidant Health, during that process, was paramount, unequaled, so I suggest you task the commissioner to intervene with Vidant as his next project within his continued fiduciary with his principal - Vidant Health, formerly UHS.