DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER LANGSTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

SICK BABY CITED IN PITCH FOR HOSPITAL 60 PEOPLE PRESENT CASE IN RALEIGH FOR OUTER BANKS MEDICAL FACILITY.

While friends were visiting John Gilson in Southern Shores last May, their baby became dangerously sick. With a high fever, her normally bright eyes began to turn black from dehydration.

After three trips to the Outer Banks Medical Center, staffers there sent her to the emergency room at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City 60 miles away.

Speeding past cornfields on the highway, the baby grew disturbingly quiet in the back seat.

Fortunately, she survived, but Gilson said watching her ordeal during the long trip was nerve-racking.

The experience troubled Gilson so much that he rode a bus to Raleigh Tuesday, where 60 Dare County residents and officials asked a state panel to pave the way for a small outpatient hospital to be built on the Outer Banks.

``That was a two-hour drive with a very sick child getting worse all the time,'' said Gilson. ``It impressed upon us that there was a need.''

Chesapeake General Hospital has proposed building a new facility on the Outer Banks that would include a birthing center and up to nine beds where patients could be observed or stay overnight.

The hospital could also handle outpatient procedures like sinus surgeries, hernia repairs and arthroscopic knee operations. Expanded diagnostic services could prevent residents from having to travel long distances for lab tests and bloodwork.

The new facility would replace the Outer Banks Medical Center in Nags Head, which is currently operated by the Virginia-based Chesapeake General Hospital.

``We have provided about all that we can in the facility we have,'' said Donald S. Buckley, president of Chesapeake General Hospital. ``We feel that people are making trips to Chesapeake for things that could be done here on the island.''

Before development can proceed, the North Carolina State Health Coordinating Council must determine that there is a need for additional medical facilities on the Outer Banks. Their statewide plan for 1998 currently finds no justification.

Dare County residents told the panel that the geography, tourism explosion and growing year-round population of the Outer Banks warranted more extensive medical services.

From 1992 to 1996, annual emergency calls in Dare County have doubled from 4,200 to 8,200. In the last two years, patient visits to the Outer Banks Medical Center have increased by 12 percent, officials said.

``Our health is put in jeopardy, our costs are increased, our resources are overtaxed, and our citizens and visitors are left wondering why our state will not even allow them the opportunity to apply for the establishment of a modest medical facility for simple surgical procedures and the birth of children,'' said Norma Ware, a spokesperson for Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare.

Residents told of three-hour ambulance rides with kidney stones making each highway bump excruciatingly painful. They recounted babies born in parking lots and the back seats of cars because families could not reach distant hospitals in time.

``Isn't it ironic that we can live, work and die in Dare County, but we cannot be born in Dare County?'' asked Geneva Perry, vice chairwoman of the Dare County Commission.

Jeff Williams, a paramedic with Dare County EMS, told the panel that during the summer tourist season, all county ambulances can be tied up transporting patients to outlying hospitals. He also sees the wear and tear that traveling long distances puts on patients and their families.

``I see distraught family members and friends trying to locate where their loved one is going even when given a map,'' he said. ``This hospital will save stress and strain on our tourists.''

But others were quick to point out that the main beneficiaries would be the residents of Dare, Hyde and Currituck counties, who have historically been ``medically underserved,'' officials argued.

The health panel is not expected to finalize its statewide plan until October, said Lori Pycior Wright, a planner with Chesapeake General Hospital. If they find a need for a new facility, it would be early next year before the project could move forward.

Albemarle Hospital also operates a medical center on the Outer Banks, a 24-hour facility in Kitty Hawk, and Pitt County Hospital in Greenville has expressed interest in providing medical services.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu