THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605110005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Portsmouth General Hospital, nearly 100 years old, has been sold and soon will close, leaving Maryview Hospital, about three miles away, to serve the entire city.
The generations of residents born at Portsmouth General will miss it, but this city of about 100,000 will be more efficiently served by one hospital with a high occupancy rate than by two hospitals with large numbers of empty beds.
Maryview, with 267 beds and room for expansion, will have more than enough beds to serve Portsmouth residents. Its occupancy rate has been running 50 percent to 60 percent, compared with 30 percent to 40 percent for Portsmouth General, which has 311 beds.
The fact that one hospital will have a monopoly in Portsmouth is not a problem, because residents remain free to go to the many other hospitals in adjoining cities.
Both Portsmouth General and Maryview are nonprofit hospitals with strong records of charity, so poor patients should not be neglected. Maryview is no Johnny-come-lately, having served the city half a century.
As was announced last week, Tidewater Health Care of Virginia Beach is selling Portsmouth General to Bon Secours Maryview Health System of Marriottsville, Md., owner of Maryview Hospital.
All in-patient care at Portsmouth General is to be transferred to Maryview within 18 months, but Maryview will honor Tidewater Health Care's commitment to continue operating the hospital's emergency room, some outpatient care and a rehabilitation center at the downtown site for at least four years.
The state agency that regulates the number of hospital beds in Hampton Roads is Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency Inc. Its executive director, Paul Boynton, is ``very pleased'' the number of Portsmouth hospitals is being reduced to one. ``In 1977 and 1978 we tried to encourage a merger of those two facilities,'' he said. The closure of one of the hospitals is all the more needed today, he said, with managed care and the resulting shorter hospital stays.
The two hospital chains involved in the sale are putting $200,000 apiece into a fund for training Portsmouth General workers for other jobs. The hospital employs 830. They will be given priority in hiring at other hospitals owned by the two chains.
The closure of one of the Portsmouth hospitals was inevitable. Probably more Hampton Roads hospitals will close as the health-care system becomes more efficient under the lash of managed care. We cannot afford the high cost of empty beds.
Still, Portsmouth General will be remembered fondly. Its record of service is honorable and long.
KEYWORDS: HOSPITAL CLOSING MANAGED CARE by CNB