Many of the speakers at the forum held Tuesday night — held at the Wilkinson Center — made it clear they want the Belhaven hospital saved. Other speakers made it clear that, if the hospital closes, they want the new clinic replacing it to include an emergency room.

Vidant Health CEO and President Dr. David Herman said there’s no question the Belhaven hospital, in the town since 1947, will close. Herman said the existing hospital would not be replaced with a new hospital because the community and Vidant Health cannot sustain the losses incurred by the hospital. Though the hospital is closing, Vidant Health is committed to providing the best health care it can afford to people in the Belhaven area and Hyde County, Herman said.

Herman said when Vidant Health took over the hospital in 2011, it was losing more than $1 million a year and had a significant amount of debt.

“We talked about the ability to maintain a hospital here long-term. We recognized at that time there wasn’t the ability to do that,” Herman said. “What we said is, ‘Let’s try to keep it here as long as we can.’ Because were very, very hopeful the economy would turn around, that perhaps reimbursement would go up and the third thing, which is really driving the decision right now, is that facility would stand the test of time and allow us to maintain that facility. None of those three things have happened.”
Herman said the Belhaven hospital is losing more than $6,500 dollars a day to provide care to patients. The hospital loses five times the money as other hospitals in the Vidant Health family, he noted.

Several speakers criticized Vidant Health for providing “short notice” on its decision to close the hospital. They said the community should have been informed much sooner.

“You know, looking back, we probably could have started a conversation,” Herman said.

Hyde County Commissioner Anson Byrd, noting that the hospital serves Hyde County residents, expressed concern about the level of health care those residents would receive after the hospital closes. He questioned if the new, 24/7 multi-specialty clinic would meet those needs.

“We can only do what we can afford to do,” Herman said.

“That’s true, but when you staring talking about people’s lives, that’s a different thing,” Byrd said.

John Murphy pleaded with Herman for Vidant Health to keep the hospital open until the new clinic is up and running and not close it before then.

Herman told the standing-room audience (which included people standing in hallways outside the auditorium) the clinic would have the same medicines, equipment and procedures the hospital’s existing emergency room has except for a blood bank.

“Blood you won’t be able to get. Whether we have emergency CT scan available, which we don’t have now, we can’t promise that, but there will be emergency X-ray and all that stuff. So, the drugs to stabilize people, as we have right now, and the same skilled people that are in that room right now, we have their pledge they’ll be in that room going forward,” Herman said. “So, unless there is something of which I am unaware, you have my pledge.”

Ulrich Alsentzer, a retired doctor and Belhaven resident, spokes about his experience with getting people to sign a resolution concerning the closing of the hospital.

“I prepared two signature sheets (to accompany the resolution) expecting to collect 20 or 30 signatures. What I did not expect was to find hundreds and hundreds of people with a high degree of existential angst that had been created by the looming loss of the hospital,” Alsentzer said. “People living not just in Belhaven and eastern Beaufort County but way into Hyde County reacted this way. We have so far collected over 1500 signatures and are still counting.

“This angst left people searching for words. Their angst is expressed as anger. They are angry because they felt abandoned and betrayed. Anger directed at those who thought that they can make decisions about our lives without as much as a hint of a consultation of what our needs, or wishes, or concerns are.

“It is not going to be easy to assuage this population. Any attempt at remediation better include much consultation and negotiation with the folks in Belhaven, eastern Beaufort County and Hyde County.”

Belhaven Mayor Adam addressed Herman at the end of the forum.

“I look forward to working with you in the future to see if we can accomplish our common goals and maybe pull you toward an emergency room.”

O’Neal said Vidant Health decided to close the hospital without consulting with local governments.

“You didn’t ask for any help. You knew what you wanted to do, and you did it. You should have reached out to the communities. It causes doubt in people’s minds when people see you not reach out, as if that were your goal to start with. That’s a problem. … You didn’t do all you could do.”

O’Neal suggested Vidant Health work with local government officials to find a way, if possible, to have a blood bank and CT-scan equipment at the new clinic.

For more coverage of the forum, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.