WHO WE ARE
Albemarle Health and the Communities We Serve
Albemarle Health, a Vidant Health Partner, is northeastern North Carolina’s largest healthcare provider, serving a seven-county region of more than 130,000 year round residents. The beaches of the Outer Banks bring an estimated 7 million visitors to the region each year. The hospital’s service area includes Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties. The region is a rural, agriculture-based area. Albemarle Hospital is located in Elizabeth City, in Pasquotank County, the region’s economic hub.
Albemarle Hospital continues to be a major healthcare provider to the region. In Fiscal Year 2009, the hospital admitted 6,426 patients; delivered 759 babies; performed 8,475 combined inpatient and outpatient surgeries; treated 33,368 patients in the Emergency Department; and received 102,455 outpatient visits, mostly for diagnostic imaging or laboratory tests, or rehabilitation services.
A Regional Resource
The hospital offers our region state-of-the-art healthcare usually not seen in similarly sized community hospitals, including: vascular surgery; Small Incision Surgery; cardiac care including diagnostic catheterizations, and pacemaker implantations; complete diagnostic radiology services including nuclear medicine, MRI, breast MRI, Mobile PET services, CT scans utilizing a 64-slice high definition CT scanner with cardiac imaging (that allows Albemarle Hospital to perform less invasive coronary CT procedures, and specialized neurological studies), and a PACS digital imaging system; multimodality cancer treatment, including radiation therapy employing a new linear accelerator, CT simulation, as well as multi-leaf intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) allowing the delivery of precise doses of high energy radiation to tumors; renal dialysis; Greenlight PVP laser technology, used to treat prostate conditions; mammography services, with digital mammography technology; and Fast Track Emergency Room service.
Albemarle Hospital completed the second phase of its Emergency Department (ED) and Surgery Center construction and renovation project in June 2009. Phase one of the project, completed in November 2008, featured new construction that houses an expansion to the ED and our Dr. Zack D. Owens Surgery Center. With the completion of our ED renovation and expansion, we have more than doubled the bed capacity (from 16 to 34 treatment rooms), and added a specialty room for treating victims of sexual assault. We now also have designated entrances and parking areas for emergency patients and ambulances.
In addition to its healthcare impact, Albemarle Hospital is a leading financial resource to the region. The system employs more than 900 people regionally, with more than $51 million in annual payroll.
Providing Care to All Who Need It
In Pasquotank County, home of Albemarle Hospital, the median household income is more than $8,000 less than the state average, the per capita money income is nearly $6,000 less than the state average, and 18 percent of residents live below the poverty level, more than 6 percent higher than those living elsewhere in the state. More than 25,000 residents within the hospital’s service area are indigent, uninsured, and underinsured; consequently, Albemarle Hospital wrote off more than $17 million in charity care in 2009; provided more than $7 million in unreimbursed Medicare/Medicaid services; and gave more than $81,000 worth of community benefit programs/services.
A Foundation of Care
The Albemarle Hospital Foundation was created in 2003. Community Care Clinics were developed through the Foundation to offer free primary care and prescription services to our region’s growing indigent, uninsured, and underinsured population. Clinics located in Elizabeth City and Tyner serve patients in Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties. In Fiscal Year 2009, the Elizabeth City and Tyner clinics combined to dispense 18,387 non-narcotic prescriptions (saving patients more than $400,465); helped patients acquire 11,093 prescriptions through the prescription assistance program, worth more than $5,310,420; treated 1,811 patients in its free primary care program (providing more than $68,200 in services) and handed out vouchers for more than 400 laboratory procedures, 74 antibiotics, and 136 mammograms.
The Foundation’s target populations, including minorities and a growing Hispanic population, are experiencing an increase in chronic diseases such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. The Foundation’s Community Care Clinics are developing culturally relevant initiatives that deliver much-needed preventative healthcare to the communities where the need is greatest; we’re focusing on Hispanic and African-American outreach programs that target some of the most pressing healthcare issues of these two typically underserved groups.
Reaching Into Our Communities
Albemarle Health’s community involvement is as diverse as the counties we serve. Our staff typically hosts, or participates more than 150 community events. Some of our healthcare initiatives include: support of our two adopted schools, such as science fair help or school supply drives, Biggest Loser weight loss programs with community groups, and free health fairs that draw thousands of participants, such as Women’s Day.
Our staff members have become lead participants (in terms of monetary employee contributions) in The United Way, March of Dimes, and American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life campaigns. In 2009, Albemarle Hospital employees and physicians donated more than 10,000 volunteer hours to community agencies and organizations; and the Albemarle Hospital Volunteers gave nearly 22,000 hours of service to Albemarle Hospital, its patients, and employees.
