ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen Health Care President Stephen Fife gave the local Rotary Club an overview of the hospital, bot pre-COVID and after the pandemic had waned.

Bladen Health Care is one of eight hospitals in the region that is part of Cape Fear Valley Medical.

In Elizabethtown, the hospital has 58 beds — including 22 in the medical/surgical unit and four in ICU — and has two operating rooms. The hospital employs about 280 people with a payroll of about $18 million that includes salaries and benefits.

“About $1.5 million of that gets spent in Bladen County by our employees,” Fife said.

He added that the local hospital gets about 13,000 emergency room visits annually, along with 40,000 outpatient visits and 100,000 in-patient visits.

“Our No. 1 focus, in addition to our employees, is our patients,” Fife stated. “They will always be very important to us. We may not get it right 10 out of 10 times, but we will always strive to get it right every time.”

Fife said the hospital hasn’t had a positive COVID patient in six straight weeks now, but had admitted 126 patients with COVID during the pandemic.

He added that 97% of the hospital’s staff had received COVID vaccinations, and the hospital had administered more than 12,000 COVID vaccinations during the pandemic.

“And we are now getting back to pre-COVID statistics in many areas,” Fife said. “We are projected to do more than 600 surgeries in 2022.”

The hospital is also heavily involved in a full renovation of its high-traffic areas.

Fife said the ER lobby, cafeteria, Emergency Department and all patient care areas have been getting upgrades — as well as a resurfacing of the parking lots, repainting inside and more.

“The Emergency Department is really the gateway to the hospital and we want it to re[present our hospital’s high quality of care for patients,” he said.

Another positive Fife added is the fact that the hospital now employs all of the doctors in its Emergency Department.

“This helps us to set the bar higher for the level of care with doctors who are invested in the community,” he said. “The best thing about that is every one of them are board certified in emergency medicine.”

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or [email protected].