Vidant Health officials discuss the closure of urgent care center

Vidant Health is working to allay concerns in the community about the pending closure of Inner Banks Urgent Care, according to one local hospital official.

Local doctors and Vidant Health staff members will announce plans in the coming weeks for providing emergent, but not life-threatening care, to those patients who have been served in recent years by Inner Banks Urgent Care, according to Harvey Case, president of Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

Vidant Health will continue to provide urgent care to local residents although the location of that care will change, Case told members of the Beaufort County Republican Club at a meeting Thursday night in Chocowinity.

“Our goal is to increase access,” Case told the group. But, he said, “access to care is not always going to look like it does today.”

Vidant Health officials announced earlier this month that Inner Banks Urgent Care would close and the practice’s staff would be reassigned to other medical practices affiliated with Vidant Medical Group.

In announcing the closure, Vidant Health officials said that patients currently seen at the urgent-care facility will be able to schedule appointments with the following practices: Vidant Internal Medicine–Washington, Vidant Women’s Care–Washington, Vidant Family Medicine–Washington and Vidant Family Medicine–Chocowinity.

The urgent-care practice is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Cook of Washington who had worked in the then-Beaufort County Hospital emergency department for 27 years before moving to the urgent-care practice, according to information about the practice on the health system’s website.

Case told the GOP club members that Vidant Health and its affiliated medical practices are working to develop a “medical home” model under which patients will be able to see their own primary-care doctor for their entire medical needs.

The health-care system wants to promote “more of a relationship between the patient and the physician” and “focus more on preventative care.”

Case also discussed efforts under way at Vidant Beaufort Hospital to help alleviate overcrowding at Vidant Medical Center, formerly Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Doctors and staff at the two hospitals are seeking ways to provide in-patient care at the Washington hospital for those patients who can be treated effectively at the local hospital.

Instead of adding more beds at Vidant Medical Center, doctors and staff at the Greenville hospital are “looking to utilize our capacity.”

Hospitalists at Vidant Beaufort Hospital are working with doctors at the Greenville hospital on that, he said.

Case also discussed construction projects that are being planned at the Washington hospital, including replacement of the elevators and implementation of computerized medical records.

He also said Vidant Health is working to recruit new doctors to serve patients in Beaufort County.

Case answered audience questions about the recent name change from University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, possible salary increases for hospital employees and the hospital’s responsibility for treating patients who cannot pay for the care they receive.