THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9607310134
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 71 lines
It sure is quiet around here, I said to an employee at Portsmouth General Hospital one day last week.
Yeah, he replied, people don't know we're here.
Well, they are there, and I recommend Portsmouth General as the place to go.
Needing some X-rays of an ailing, aging knee, I called the hospital, and they said I didn't need an appointment.
Just come on by, they said. I was skeptical, but I moseyed on over there. Let me tell you, it was great.
First, there was a parking space right at the front door - a godsend for someone with an aching back and an ailing knee.
Once inside, I waited a few minutes in a very quiet room for one of the staff members to do paperwork. That didn't take long because the obviously experienced and courteous employee knew exactly what she was doing - and did it efficiently.
Back in X-ray, I waited a few minutes only because they couldn't read the doctor's handwriting and had to call him. Another pleasant staff member came and told me what was going on.
As soon as they figured out what he wanted, I was on my way to get the X-rays.
Portsmouth General is very clean and very quiet. Despite the usual irritation at having to be there for any reason, I couldn't help but think how pleasantly organized everything seemed to be.
Portsmouth General recently was bought by Maryview from Tidewater Health Care. News of the sale apparently has caused people to believe the hospital is closed, so they don't use Portsmouth General.
Sadly, the hospital probably will close within the next few years - in part because Portsmouth people have not supported it. At this point, it's doubtful that Maryview would keep Portsmouth General open for any reason in years to come.
Maryview apparently would rather be anywhere but Downtown. Hospital officials say they will keep a PGH rehab center on Portsmouth Boulevard and they constantly have pushed toward North Suffolk.
Now, I really do understand marketing and aiming to take business away from competitors. But darn if I understand constructing new buildings (and taking more land off the tax books), when there's a very nice rehab center in a very sound structure at Portsmouth General.
Sure, that's easy for me to say because I live nearby and, admittedly, that's a good reason for bias. But I continue to wonder where the march to suburbia is going to take us.
Portsmouth always is the victim.
The board of a big company somewhere in America decides to move all of its stores from old shopping centers to new ones. Since Portsmouth has few places for new centers, that means that the national chains move just across the city line to another city, leaving behind the customers who have made them successful.
Developers come along and build bigger centers to make their fortune, and Portsmouth gets stuck with deteriorating centers. Its citizens must run all over Hampton Roads to shop.
Portsmouth people moan and groan about the city's lack of retail stores and other facilities all the time they're driving miles to spend their money elsewhere. They gripe about the city while making little effort to encourage people to stay in business in Portsmouth.
I don't know why I would think Maryview or any other hospital would be any different. Their profits depend on getting the public to spend money with them.
If more people would use Portsmouth General facilities over the next few years, maybe Maryview would decide to keep existing outpatient services and add some more. But it won't happen unless we make it happen.
Certainly, my experience last week has convinced me there's no better place to go for what ails you. by CNB