Monday, September 25, 2023
By Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice on March 20, 2023
In July 2022, Outer Banks Hospital President Ronnie Sloan announced plans to renovate the property housing the Outer Banks Family Medical Practice in Manteo and to build a 2,500- square-foot addition adjacent to that building in order to eventually incorporate more medical staff.
On Monday, March 20, Outer Banks Health, the recently adopted brand name for the Outer Banks Hospital and Medical Group, released a statement providing an update on those plans.
Here is the statement.
“Outer Banks Health is pleased to announce plans to expand the building that houses Manteo Family Medicine on Roanoke Island. At their most recent meeting held February 24, the Outer Banks Health Board of Directors approved $5M in support of the project. Outer Banks Health recently closed on the purchase of the property formerly owned by Dr. Walter and Barbara Holton of Manteo. A site plan that includes improvements to the current structure and a 2,600 square foot addition will soon go through the Dare County planning process in preparation for construction. Once completed, the 6,300 square foot building will have capacity to grow along with the future needs of the community.”
Asked when Outer Banks Health might submit the site plan to county planning officials, spokesperson Wendy Kelly emailed that they would “be happy to share more information as soon as our plans are finalized. “
When Sloan originally announced the expansion plan last summer, the county was still responding to the news that in May, a letter was sent to more than 2,400 patients of the Outer Banks Family Medical Practice informing them they could no longer receive medical services there because of a provider shortage. That letter, which starkly highlighted the health care provider crisis in the county, galvanized local and medical officials to more aggressively seek solutions. Among other things, that triggered the creation of the ongoing Manteo Healthcare Task Force.
The March 20 statement from Outer Banks Health also quoted Sloan as saying that “The project at Manteo Family Medicine represents our commitment to provide the highest quality healthcare services. Improvements are also on-going at the hospital where we are installing a new MRI, Nuclear Medicine Camera, and Digital X-ray as well as expanding our Laboratory and Outpatient Cardiology Diagnostic areas. In addition, construction of the Cowell Cancer Center continues.”
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Thinking About the Future
We’d heard about this expansion after we got the letters telling us we weren’t patients anymore. That’s a lot of space. Let’s see what happens.
Manteo Urgent Care
Right after we all got the drop dead letters they were asked if they were planning to close the Manteo office. They said they had no plans to close the office and in fact they were planning to expand to put in yet another Urgent Care. This was their plan all along.
Urgent Cares have much higher billing rates and make a lot more money than primary care. They claim they are “nonprofit” but the Outer Banks Hospital has one of the highest profit margins of all the hospitals in North Carolina.
Kit
So, why wasn’t this in the mix before they went bust last spring? Where’s all this new money coming from? How can ECU now do it when Vidant either couldn’t or didn’t want to? There’s something awfully smelly about the medical environment here in the Outer Banks!
Sandflea
Manteo Urgent Care;
You got it! Problem is, is that who is going to staff it? Every time they get a doctor or two, one or two leave. Vident from what I am told first hand and have observed for myself is that they are an awful system to work for. Also, many doctors that move here are married and come from metropolitan areas along with their spouses. Many miss the lifestyle offered to them in a suburban setting. In addition, many spouses have a professional career of their own that aren’t necessarily available to them here. Plus if someone spent years going to school and working in their profession earning a good salary and can’t find work in their profession, they aren’t going to be happy. The Outer Banks is a beautiful place, but doesn’t really have a lot to offer other than surfing, fishing, and mediocre restaurants. Thus the constant turnover. Another thing that has been beaten to death is the lack of housing; which is going to get even worse with Target, Marshals, Wawa, car wash, etc needing places for their employees to live. More people, less housing, less workers, and no place to expand is not a good combination.is not a good combination.
No Money in General Practice
Manteo Urgent Care knows the deal.
The deal is that there is not a high return on General Practice/Family Care. Vidant/ECU Health knows this very thing.
It’s pretty peculiar how they can’t find a GP to move and practice here BUT they can find Specialists. Always follow the money.
Let’s not forget that these people lobbied AGAINST price transparency. They have waged war against Treasurer Folwell who is trying his very best to simply get charges for the public so we can be knowledgeable about a service or procedure cost so we can make an informed decision.
Who would have thought that the Hospital wouldn’t want to provide that information?