|
May 1, 2010
Hospital News
For Immediate Release
April 30, 2010
Contact: Jennifer Westfall
Franklin Regional Medical Center
919-497-8460 or jwestfall@novanthealth.org
Novant Health will discontinue current efforts to bring new hospital to Youngsville
Novant Health announced today that it will discontinue its current efforts to secure state approval to build a new hospital in Youngsville.
“We continue to be committed to making Franklin Regional Medical Center in Louisburg an excellent community hospital,” explained Jody Morris, chief operating officer of Novant Health’s facilities in the Triangle area. “And we had hoped to also expand hospital services to others in the county by building an additional county facility in Youngsville. But we have not been able to reach an acceptable agreement with Town of Louisburg representatives.”
In early 2007, the former owner of Franklin Regional Medical Center, Health Management Associates (HMA), proposed closing the Louisburg hospital and building a new one in Youngsville. Then in October of 2009, Franklin Regional joined Novant Health, which is a not-for-profit health system based in North Carolina with 12 hospitals, a large physician medical group and outpatient centers.
“We have not been interested in moving Franklin Regional because it serves a critical need in Louisburg and the surrounding area,” Morris commented. “We feel that expanding healthcare services to other parts of the county should be a priority and we will continue to explore the best options for reaching out to other local communities. And someday we hope to again begin planning for a two-hospital county.”
Town of Louisburg representatives officially opposed the efforts of HMA to move the hospital to Youngsville. Novant Health leaders have always supported a two-hospital solution that they believe better serves the entire county, which includes keeping the hospital in Louisburg and building an additional hospital in the Youngsville area. Novant attempted to reach an agreement with town representatives that would accomplish that goal, but the health system is not willing to meet the additional demands of town representatives.
The cost estimate to build a new hospital in Youngsville is approximately $80 million. Novant Health’s plans were to continue supporting Franklin Regional Medical Center as a community hospital in Louisburg, to include emergency room services, inpatient beds to meet medical needs, inpatient and outpatient surgery, and a wide range of outpatient diagnostic services. However, the town’s representatives were requiring approximately $30 million of additional expenditures over the next 12 years, making the overall two-hospital plan unfeasible. For instance, town representatives were insisting that Franklin Regional Medical Center continue paying water utility bills that would no longer be based upon actual usage in the future. Novant Health leaders involved in the negotiations described many of the demands of town representatives as ones that other businesses, organizations and county residents would find intolerable.
Jason Proctor, the new president of Franklin Regional Medical Center, commented that people in Louisburg are passionate about maintaining a local community hospital and that he and Novant share that passion. “My number one goal and that of our hospital’s entire staff, is to strengthen Franklin Regional and build its reputation so that local residents and patients describe it as one of the best community hospitals in the region or anywhere. We’d like to bring new services to Franklin Regional and we will need the support of local residents and civic leaders to accomplish that. Unfortunately, we cannot pursue that same goal for the Youngsville area.”
Novant Health continues the planning process for creating an outpatient surgery center in Youngsville. The health system received state approval to build the county’s first free-standing surgery center, a new service that complements Franklin Regional’s program and extends surgical services to other communities in the area.
# # #
Franklin Regional Medical Center of Louisburg, NC is part of Novant Health, a not-for-profit integrated group of hospitals and physician practices, caring for patients and communities in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. The Novant Medical Group consists of 1,069 physicians in 346 clinic locations. Other Novant hospitals include the following: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital Matthews and Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville in the Charlotte, NC area; Forsyth Medical Center and Medical Park Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC; Thomasville Medical Center, Thomasville, NC; Brunswick Community Hospital, Supply, NC; Rowan Regional Medical Center, Salisbury, NC; Upstate Carolina Medical Center, Gaffney, SC; and Prince William Hospital, Manassas, VA. Other Novant facilities and programs include nursing homes and assisted living, outpatient surgery centers, medical plazas, rehabilitation programs, community health outreach programs and the national MedQuest organization with 108 diagnostic imaging centers in 13 states. Novant Health is ranked 17th nationally among the 2010 Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks, according to an analysis by the SDI health informatics company.
|