Beaufort County Hospital Back in the News | Eastern NC Now

Beaufort County Hospital Back in the News

BY:  HOOD RICHARDSON

Things have been quiet since Beaufort County Government made the deal to lease with an option to purchase the Beaufort County Hospital to what was then Vidant. That deal involved a 30-year lease and a balloon payment of 30 million dollars paid to Beaufort County at the end of the 30 years if Vidant wanted to own the property. Since then, Vidant’s name has changed a few times as various plans to make money by Vidant came into play. Vidant agreed to update our emergency room as part of the deal. They took their time doing the update.

In a recent development the dealmakers in the Legislature appropriated 25 million dollars, some say 15 million, and some say it is only a planning stipend to provide increased health care to this area. The reason for this is the bankruptcy of other rural hospitals in this area such as the Martin (County) Hospital. Apparently, this was done to improve the capacity of the Beaufort County Hospital so it would be able to handle Martin County and other counties in this area.

The hospital in Washington has been impacted by the closing of the Belhaven Hospital. Belhaven was closed by Vidant in order to drive that business to Washington. Belhaven area residents were upset about this because they thought they had an agreement with Vidant to keep their hospital open. That is why the Belhaven property was deeded to Vidant. Surprise, surprise, that was a handshake agreement, not in writing, and would have been enforceable only with a lawsuit.

Both deals with Vidant at Washington and Belhaven were very controversial. There was a public outcry. It came down to “Who do you believe today and what story are they telling you today”. There was a lot of misinformation. The Washington Chamber of Commerce was very active and the year the lease was signed announced at their annual Banquet that they took credit for making the deal work, it was their major achievement and contribution to Beaufort County. It was not much of a deal. What Beaufort County actually got was the closing of Belhaven and wait another several years before the emergency room was improved.

Sometime within the past year the Beaufort County Commissioners were invited to a meeting held in the former boardroom of the Beaufort County Hospital. We toured the hospital seeing the renovation of rooms then in progress. Vidant and their successor have spent money repairing elevators and replacing windows and done other long-term repairs. Vidant’s message went something like this at that meeting. These are not direct quotes. “You can see that these rooms are too small to use and too expensive to remodel”. Then, in our meeting we were told the solution to their problem was for the Legislature to provide the money to build a high-rise hospital on the present site. They waltzed around what would happen to the present Hill-Burton financed hospital building.

I pressed the issue of the future of the existing buildings which Vidant did not want to talk about. Finally, they halfway admitted the plan was to tear down the present buildings. I suggested that we should consider finding another future for these buildings. I got immediate pushback from the Vidant representatives and five of our County Commissioners.

I am not a medical expert. I did serve on the Beaufort County Hospital Board when it was given away. I voted against that deal because the result was less medical services to the citizens of Beaufort County and enriching Vidant. There is a need for many services in the health community (statewide). There are needs for drug rehab facilities, other rehab facilities, mental health, children’s hospitals, rest homes, etc. We owe it to our citizens, if this plan to replace this building is successful, to do a full investigation as to what this building could be repurposed for.

Within the world of economic development, we are constantly told that those who have existing buildings are at the front of the line for new projects. We would have a building that has the improvements needed to be a hospital. That gives us something to market. Repurposing this building would provide additional high paying jobs for Beaufort County.

Vidant came to Beaufort County using high handed public relations tactics to get what they wanted. We have less medical care than when they came. The Chamber of Commerce bought their story. The Board of County Commissioners owe it to you to do everything in our power to repurpose this building. Repurposing can only help our citizens and the future of the County.

The present health system is socialized and the product of Obama Care. We no longer have private medical practices. We are herded in specific directions for almost all medical care. Obama Care is very expensive compared to socialized medical systems in other countries. Medical procedure prices are set by the government. The system is rigged so that those who can pay are also paying for many who do not pay or who arrange their finances, so they qualify for free or reduced rates which are paid from our taxes.

This socialized system is further reinforced by the Certificate of Need laws in North Carolina. My opinion of these laws is that they guarantee those who are in the medical business to remain in the medical business without fear of competition. Certificate of Need laws require hospitals and certain other providers to apply for permission to go into business or to expand. These laws need to be abolished.

I was in Raleigh visiting the Legislature with Adam O’Neal (former Mayor of Belhaven) during the controversy of giving our hospital to Vidant when there was a challenge to the Certificate of Need laws.  We saw Vidant’s lobbyists and many other hospital lobbyists fighting to keep these anticompetition laws.

The bottom line is we have an opportunity to build a new hospital building, repurpose the existing Hill-Burton building, and thereby create new jobs and better healthcare for all of North Carolina. This will happen if the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners insists on repurposing and the public does not listen the those who have already demonstrated bad judgment.

There is an announcement in the Washington Daily News on July 18 that Catherine Glover, Executive Director of the Washington Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce has taken the position as Development Manager with the ECU Health Foundation Beaufort Hospital (Vidant).

I will have more specific information about this in future articles.