THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120168
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Officials at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville are looking into ways they could provide health care to Dare County residents.
Hospital President Dave McRae announced this week that staffers at Pitt Memorial plan to conduct a study to determine the best way to respond to medical needs on the Outer Banks.
The study was initiated after hospital executives met with a delegation from Dare County - including Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr., commissioners Sammy Smith and Clarence Skinner, County Manager Terry Wheeler and spokesman Charles Hartig.
When the study is completed, McRae said, the results will be presented to the seven-member Board of Commissioners. Findings will include a series of options for commissioners to consider.
``We're not going to rush to judgment on this issue,'' Owens said, cautioning that the Greenville meeting will not preclude continuing discussions with officials at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, Chowan Hospital in Edenton and Chesapeake General Hospital in Chesapeake, Va.
``We're going to make sure that we do what's right for the people of Dare County.''
Albemarle and Chesapeake hospitals already have health-care facilities and physicians on the Outer Banks. Pitt Memorial serves a 29-county area of eastern North Carolina as a regional referral and tertiary care center. The hospital has 726 beds, 1,300 registered nurses and a total work force of more than 4,200 employees.
Owens has said that he would like to see a Dare County hospital at the site of the county airport, on the north end of Roanoke Island. by CNB