THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605270206
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 76 lines
Norfolk Community Hospital, one of the few historically black hospitals left in the nation, announced plans Friday for a major expansion and fund-raising campaign.
Norfolk Community's campaign is an attempt to stay viable. Changes in health insurance, which reduce the number of patient visits, are forcing many hospitals out of business. Portsmouth General was sold this month to Maryview Medical Center and will eventually be closed.
Norfolk Community's fund raiser will kick off tonight with an appearance by Johnnie L. Cochran, the lead defense attorney for O.J. Simpson. Organizers, who have $100,000 in the bank, hope to raise $10 million over the next four years.
The money will be put toward an ambitious, $15 million expansion of the hospital facilities, located in the 2500 block of Corprew Avenue, by Norfolk State University.
An outpatient surgery center would be the first project. The hospital now offers outpatient surgery in three separate parts of the building. The new center would consolidate those services and make them more convenient for patients, said Phillip Brooks, Norfolk Community's president.
Another top priority is a larger building for the offices of primary care doctors associated with Norfolk Community. The doctors now practice in a nearby building.
The strategy of focusing on outpatients is one that has been tried recently by other local hospitals, including DePaul Medical Center, Obici Hospital, Sentara Bayside Hospital and Chesapeake General Hospital.
Officials say they are increasing outpatient and primary care services to survive changes brought about by managed care.
Managed care is a type of health insurance that aims to save money by limiting access to expensive specialists and by finding alternatives to traditional hospital visits.
Technology also has hurt traditional hospitals.
Improvements have made many types of surgery easier, so procedures that once required at least a night in the hospital now allow patients to go home the same day.
All that has meant hospitals are having a hard time keeping their beds full; Norfolk Community operated with about half its staffed beds empty last year.
Hospital officials already have taken steps to adapt. In recent years, they have de-emphasized traditional hospital services and beefed up alternatives like a dialysis center and mental health care.
These strategies have helped. Norfolk Community made a 3 percent profit in the last fiscal year. The previous year, the hospital had operated at a loss.
The 81-year-old hospital was founded at a time when African Americans were turned away from white hospitals. Most historically black hospitals have closed since desegregation. Newport News General is one of the five remaining.
Brooks said Norfolk Community wants to stay true to their mission of providing health care for people who don't have access to it.
Norfolk Community treats a greater percentage of Medicaid patients than any hospital in the state, except for Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk.
Norfolk Community also provides more charity care and swallows more bad debts than any hospital in Hampton Roads, according to state figures.
Cochran, who arrived in Norfolk Friday to tour the hospital, said the community will lose something if hospitals like Norfolk Community don't survive.
They show a sensitivity to African American health problems that patients can't get at other places, he said.
``This hospital is yours. Protect it, keep it and make sure it's strong,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
DETAILS
Norfolk Community's fund-raising campaign will kick off with ``A
Night With the Stars'' today from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Waterside
Marriott in Norfolk. The event features appearances by Johnnie
Cochran and actors Clifton Davis, Doris Roberts and Anna Marie
Horsford.
Tickets cost $100 and are available at the door. by CNB