Brunswick County Plans New Area Hospital

By Wayne Stumph

Like any healthy, growing community, Brunswick County is committed to increasing services to meet the needs of its growing population. Providing adequate health care is imperative, and County leaders have been examining options for providing services in this key area. Plans are now moving forward to replace the current, 60-bed Brunswick Community Hospital with a new state-of-the-art 92-bed facility designed to meet the County’s needs for many years to come.

Brunswick Community Hospital is an established, JCAHO-approved facility offering a full range of health care services. Because Brunswick County is one of the five fastest growing counties in the state, “We are trying to keep up with that growth,”  says Amy Myers, spokesperson for Brunswick Community Hospital. “A lot of our residents are currently having to drive outside the county for their health care services and we really believe that having your health care services close to home is important.”

The process for bringing a new hospital into existence includes a “Certificate of Need (CON) filing,” which involves getting enough citizens,  authorities and agencies to agree that the need for a new hospital exists. In fact, the need for more acute care beds was demonstrated four years ago, when Brunswick Community Hospital requested and received state authorization to add 32 beds to their facility.   However, previous hospital managers took no action at that time. Finally, frustrated with how things were being run, the doctors at the hospital worked with the Brunswick County Hospital Authority to seek new management. After a thorough search, they selected Novant, an experienced firm administering several health care facilities in the Carolinas and Virginia. “Part of the agreement when they came on was to act on that previous CON for the 32 beds and for the additional operating room, because those had already been granted,” says Myers. On board since March of 2006, Novant and hospital staff examined options for adding the beds, and concluded that a new building would make the most sense.

Why a new building instead of renovating the existing one? The answer is that the existing structure can only be expanded so much. With little room to expand or to improve patient flow, space is already tight in the current hospital. Adding 32 beds would disrupt current patient care, and no additional growth would be possible because of surrounding wetlands. The new building will be structured something like a wedding cake, tiered so that upper floors could be expanded when needed to match the footprint of lower floors without disrupting daily operations unnecessarily. Parking, road access and other infrastructural issues will also be better addressed on the proposed 72-acre site on Highway 17, only four miles from the current hospital. Considerations in site selection included having a central location, deemed necessary for a facility serving all of Brunswick County, and cost. 

Myers looks forward to the synergy that will be created by being directly across the street from Brunswick Community College, which offers nursing programs. Free of the space limitations of the current hospital, which has no classroom space, students will be able to observe, and get work experience. 

Among the first to recognize the need for a new, larger Brunswick Community Hospital were the Brunswick County Hospital Authority and County leaders including Judge Marion Roscoe Warren and Brunswick Community College President Dr. Stephen Greiner. They have since been joined by more than 6,400 Brunswick County residents who contacted the state to express support for the new facility before the December deadline. A public hearing was held in January, 2007. If all goes as scheduled a CON decision will be made in May and issued in June, 2007.   Assuming the new facility is approved, it will open two or three years after groundbreaking.  

Once a new building is approved, the current hospital building will revert to the County’s control. Change of venue from the current space to a new building would occur quickly, once hospital construction is complete, freeing the current structure for other County needs. 

A significant improvement planned for the new building is that all 92 beds will be in private rooms.   Allocation of the proposed 92 beds between hospital units and departments is subject to change throughout the process, with ongoing evaluation from within  Novant, the community and the state. There will be one additional operating room. Ancillary services such as outpatient services, imaging, and pharmacy,  will remain the same, but will have more space. The emergency room area will increase from 12 beds to 20, will offer privacy walls instead of curtains, and will have a centrally-located nurses’ station.

The model for the new facility will be Presbyterian Hospital in Huntersville, North Carolina, where patient amenities include an in-house Starbuck’s coffee shop, dining-on-call enhanced meal selection, sophisticated paging services for visitors, 24-hour visiting hours, patient call buttons, flat screen televisions, built-in daybeds and motion sensor bathroom lights in patient rooms and Jacuzzis in most maternity suites. Similar features are planned for the proposed Brunswick facility. 

Hospitals are significant employers—often among the largest in medium and small markets. The proposed hospital, more than fifty percent larger than the current one, would impact the local economy accordingly. Employment at the existing facility has already risen dramatically to meet increased demand; need for more staff has motivated Novant to plan an energetic, statewide recruitment effort emphasizing Brunswick County’s quality of life. Physicians of all specialties will be recruited, and staff will be trained and prepared to serve all anticipated community needs. Training will be tuned to area demographics, embracing the cultural diversity of the area. 

It’s no accident that “Community” is the center word in the hospital’s name. Community is at the center of all Novant plans for the future of providing health care in Brunswick County. “This is a great opportunity to work with the community to carry out our mission through this new facility, says Myers.   “Our mission is to improve the health of communities, one person at a time.”