Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991 TAG: 9102220222
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Charles Hite Medical Writer
DATELINE: LOW MOOR LENGTH: Long
The desolate scene convinced him that he should move from Northern Virginia and deliver babies at Alleghany Regional Hospital. The hospital had closed its maternity unit in November because the only two obstetricians in the area had decided to see only gynecology patients.
"I had never seen that before," Barnes recalled of his visit earlier this month to the hospital's empty maternity wing. "Those empty bassinets made me really feel I was needed here."
In Northern Virginia, Barnes said, his practice of medicine didn't really have a large effect on the availability of health care. "Down here, I saw I could provide a needed service and immediately make a difference."
Barnes' decision to relocate means women in the area no longer will have to drive an hour or more for pregnancy care.
"This is a very happy day at Alleghany Regional," Jim Snyder, president of the hospital board, said Thursday at a news conference where Barnes and his wife were formally introduced. "It means a great deal to have a very basic service like obstetrics available again in this community."
Barnes, 44, said he obviously wouldn't be able to handle alone the 350 or more deliveries the hospital has been averaging in recent years. Hospital Administrator Bill James strongly hinted that it wouldn't be long before he will have more good news to announce.
"There are a lot of people we've talked to who were waiting for someone else to make the first move," James said. "Dr. Barnes is going to be a good man to build an obstetrical service around."
The 176-bed hospital, just off Interstate 64 between Clifton Forge and Covington, has 12 maternity beds, 14 bassinets, two birthing rooms and a delivery room.
Barnes, who expects to open his practice on the hospital grounds in May, has had a private, solo practice in Alexandria for 15 years. Barnes graduated from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in 1971 and served his internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Barnes practiced at Alexandria Hospital, where he was chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for two years. He performs gynecological laser surgery and has led groups looking at a broad range of women's health issues.
Barnes said he and his wife have been interested in getting away from the "hustle and bustle of the metropolitan lifestyle" in Northern Virginia. They were looking for a rural mountain setting where "the pace of life is a little slower."
"I look forward to coming to a community where I can establish long-term relationships with friends, where children are free to roam and crime isn't a big concern," Marilew Barnes said. The Barneses have a 21-year-old daughter, and two sons, 19 and 16.
Among those welcoming the Barneses to the community was Lisa Abbott, president-elect of the Covington Junior Women's Club. Abbott said she has several pregnant friends who have had to drive to Roanoke for obstetrical care.
"It's been a great concern in the community," she said. "The quality of the medical community is an important gauge for how well your community is doing. It's been scary here. We've got a fairly young community. It's important for them to have obstetrical care fairly close by. And industries have trouble recruiting people to an area without basic medical services."
Barnes' arrival at Alleghany Regional is especially good news for the approximately 70 low-income women who rely on the Health Department each year for their prenatal care, said Dr. Molly Hagan, director of the Alleghany Regional Health District.
In the past, Hagan made arrangements for most of those women to deliver their babies at Alleghany Regional. She worried that because many of those women had transportation problems, they might not be able to travel long distances to deliver their babies.
Since November, the hospital's emergency room physicians have delivered four babies and seen several pregnant women who were sent to other hospitals for obstetrical services, James said.
In the past several months, about a dozen obstetricians have visited Alleghany Regional, and hospital officials have had "serious discussions" with about 50 others, James said.
Two major obstacles discourage obstetricians from coming to Alleghany Regional, he said: Most are looking for a group practice, and most want to practice in an urban area close to major medical centers.
Lack of obstetrical care isn't a problem unique to Alleghany County. Nearly one-third of the obstetrician-gynecologists and family practice physicians in Virginia who have delivered babies have given up obstetrics, according to a Medical Society of Virginia report released in late 1989.
"As increasing numbers of physicians give up this speciality, those remaining develop larger and larger practices," the report said. "As a result, many of Virginia's practicing obstetricians, particularly those located in smaller and more rural areas, maintain grueling schedules, and are practicing at, or near, capacity."
That scenario unfolded in Alleghany County five years ago, when five family-practice physicians gave up delivering babies, citing high malpractice insurance premiums as a major reason.
That put a growing strain on the patient caseload of the only two obstetricians in the area. Dr. Michael Lassere said his obstetrical practice was so busy that he had no time left for his family. He announced last May that he would stop seeing obstetrical patients in November. Dr. Beulah Roblette soon thereafter made a similar announcement, saying she could not handle all the county's pregnancy care by herself.
Roblette had said she might reopen her obstetrics practice if another obstetrician came to town. She could not be reached Thursday to comment on that possibility.
by CNB