Bladen County Hospital’s mission is “providing exceptional health care for all of our patients,” Spencer Cummings told a group of community and political leaders Thursday, March 12 inside Cape Fear Farmers Market in Elizabethtown.
In a wide-ranging talk about healthcare services and needs, the president of Cape Fear Valley Health System’s local facility said that the hospital and clinics are “glad to be a part of the community, glad to provide the services that we are providing, but we’re looking at opportunities to do even more.”
Bladen County Hospital opened in 1952, underwent major renovations in 1989 and formally joined the Fayetteville-based Cape Fear Valley Health System in 2012 after four years under an affiliation agreement.
Cape Fear Valley Health System has eight hospitals across the Cape Fear region with more than 8,000 employees, including more than 1,000 physicians.
The health system has partnered with Methodist University to open a medical school this year in hopes of providing more physicians in rural areas.
“The plan is we’re bringing those doctors into the community, they fall in love with the community and they stay in the community,” Cummings said.
A Community Health Needs Assessment last year found that obesity and primary care were major issues in Bladen County, Cummings said. Bladen County’s ratio of 4,700 patients per doctor is well above the standard 2,000-to-1 ratio.
“We’re underserved as far as physicians are concerned,” Cummings said. “As far as access to care, we’re still not hitting all the areas of the county. We still have opportunities to expand. We have substance use and mental health needs.”
Bladen County Hospital offers an Urgent Care Center across from the hospital in Elizabethtown and clinics located in Bladenboro, Clarkton, Dublin, Elizabethtown and White Lake. BCH also works with the Bladen County Health Department, Bladen County Schools and Emergency Medical Services to help with care.
Bladen County Hospital is one of only 20 Critical Access Hospitals in North Carolina. Created by Congress in 1997, the facilities are designated for small, rural hospitals designed to reduce financial vulnerability and improve access to care by providing essential services such as 24/7 emergency care among the requirements.
“Being a Critical Access Hospital is really a big deal,” Cummings said. “The number is dwindling because there is a need, but not the resources to support that entity.”
Cummings discussed what he called the six C’s of care — comfortable, coordinate, consult, carry, crisis and (inpatient) care. He also presented patient numbers for Bladen County Hospital and its clinics.
Based on Bladen County’s population of about 30,000 people:
• The emergency room has about 15,000 visits annually.
• Clinics have an estimated 60,000 visits per year.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services have doubled capacity year-over-year with 1,097 patients.
Other notable items Cummings mentioned were:
• Cape Fear Valley Health System covers the cost for an instructor at Bladen Community College. The result has been that 70% of the local hospital’s nurses and health care workers come from BCC.
• BCH now has emergency certified doctors in its emergency department. “That’s important because, before that, we had a high level of family practice doctors that were working there,” Cummings said.
Cummings concluded his presentation by asking about the satisfaction level of the hospital and its clinics and additional services that are needed.
“Hopefully, I delivered the message about where we work, where we are, what we’re doing and where we’re going,” he said.
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