
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997           TAG: 9702270448

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   80 lines

HOSPITAL CONSIDERS POSSIBLE MERGER FINANCIALLY STRAPPED NORFOLK COMMUNITY HOSPITAL TALKING WITH 3 CHAINS.

Norfolk Community Hospital's leaders have approached three health-care chains to discuss affiliating, and possibly merging, hospital president Phillip Brooks confirmed Wednesday.

Brooks said leaders have talked with Norfolk-based Sentara Health System; Bon Secours Health System, a Maryland company that owns three South Hampton Roads Hospitals; and Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., a huge, for-profit chain based in Nashville, Tenn.

Brooks said Norfolk Community's leaders hope they might reach an agreement with one of the three companies within two months.

A deal, if it happens, could be the salvation of the financially strapped facility, one of the few remaining historically black-owned hospitals left in the country.

It also would be the latest in a series of affiliations and mergers that have changed the players in the Hampton Roads health care arena. Just this week, Sentara - owner of four Hampton Roads hospitals - announced it would merge with Tidewater Health Care, owner of Virginia Beach General Hospital.

Norfolk Community has struggled in recent years, hurt by changes in health care that have closed hospitals around the country. Managers have tried initiating several innovative programs that have kept the hospital afloat, including a health-care program for prison inmates and an adolescent mental health treatment unit.

But Brooks said the 202-bed facility has suffered tremendously from a change in government reimbursement for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor.

In the past, Medicaid rewarded hospitals that cared for an unusually high percentage of poor patients. At Norfolk Community, about 48 percent of the patients use Medicaid - the second-highest proportion in Virginia, according to a state report. The state average is 12 percent.

For years, Norfolk Community used the funds to subsidize the care of many people who aren't covered by Medicaid and either can't or don't pay their hospital bills. Those patients make up 19 percent of those served at Norfolk Community - higher than at any other hospital in Virginia, according to state numbers from 1995.

The reward program still exists, but it has been drastically cut back, and that's hurt the already shaky bottom line at Norfolk Community, Brooks said.

Joining a system or working out even a more limited affiliation would give Norfolk Community access to technology, and a needed infusion of capital.

A spokesperson for Sentara confirmed that the company is talking with Norfolk Community. Officials for Bon Secours and Columbia/HCA were not available for comment late Wednesday.

Leaders at Norfolk Community would like to renovate parts of the facility, located on Corprew Avenue near Norfolk State University, to accommodate changes in the delivery of health care.

The length and frequency of hospital stays are declining, thanks to changes in technology and pressure from health insurance companies.

More and more same-day surgery is being done. Norfolk Community leaders would like to create a new outpatient surgery department, consolidating several outpatient departments located in different parts of the building. They'd also like to create a suite of doctors offices, to take advantage of a growing emphasis on primary care doctors visits. They've been trying to raise funds for the renovations. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

NORFOLK COMMUNITY HOSPITAL

Location: 2500 block of Corprew Avenue

History: Opened in 1915 to care for African Americans, who were

not welcome at white hospitals.

Size: Licensed for 202 beds

Structure: Nonprofit, governed by a community board

Special programs:

Correctional care, which includes on-site health care at various

city and state facilities as well as a special, high-security wing

at the hospital.

In-patient mental health units for adults and adolescents.

Care for the poor: