Residents, city officials have a lot of questions about emergency care

One Danville woman worries about the care other mothers and children might receive at the local Emergency Department.

Fran Terry’s 3-year-old son fell and knocked his head on Labor Day. She immediately took Christian and his bleeding head to the Danville Regional Medical Center Emergency Department at about 5 p.m.

Terry held paper towels to Christian’s head, anticipating she would need to wait. She sat wondering if her son had a concussion. But after eight hours, Terry left to have a South Boston facility give her son five stitches. She waited 45 minutes there.

Terry wonders if DRMC had enough staff on hand.

“To me, that tells me there is a problem,” Terry said. “When a baby cannot get stitches, that is a problem. I hope it doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

Mike Hamilton, a maintenance worker, didn’t mind waiting 4 1/2 hours at DRMC’s Emergency Department for his five stitches. He understood there would be a wait. In the past, he’s received treatment pretty quickly. What Hamilton didn’t understand was his bill: $1,500 for five stitches.

As a single dad, he’s pressed hard to afford it and can only pay it back in monthly installments. He wonders if he should get a sign and protest rising health care costs.

“They treated me fine,” he said. “But I could have sewed it up for $1,500.”

Terry and Hamilton aren’t alone in their questions. Residents of Danville had raised questions to the mayor and City Council members over the past year about how the hospital operates.

At the request of Danville City Council, Mayor Sherman Saunders compiled a list of 10 pages of unedited questions from community members with a letter and hand-delivered them to the hospital in December 2008.

In May 2009, Saunders sent another letter and invited DRMC’s leaders to come to City Council for a chance to answer the questions.

Saunders and the City Council still haven’t heard back on the specific questions, the mayor said Wednesday.

Questions and concerns first arose when LifePoint Hospitals Inc. bought the not-for-profit hospital in June 2005.

In the past, hospital leaders had told Saunders and other community leaders that they would be happy to answer questions or concerns, Saunders added.

“We’re not trying to run the hospital. We’re not trying to tell the hospital what to do,” Saunders said. “We’re simply saying citizens want answers and would you be kind enough to answer their questions.”

Several of the community’s questions centered around staffing numbers and experience of nurses and physicians at the hospital, according to the letter. Other questions touched on how many physicians cover the Emergency Department at all times, the average Emergency Department wait time and if the hospital conducted satisfaction surveys, both for personnel and patients. A few questions touched on whether DRMC was a “community hospital.”

DRMC did host a meeting at the hospital where invited community leaders could address many issues, Chief Executive Officer Jerel Humphrey said. The hospital is committed to working with local leaders to maintain a “healthy and well-informed community through high quality care and transparency,” he added.

The hospital is looking at options of hosting more meetings with community leaders and the public, Humphrey said.

“We live here. We take care of our patients here,” Humphrey said about being a community hospital. “It’s here. It’s all local.”

Emergency rooms across the country struggle to with how to serve all patients. DRMC immediately assesses patients and life-threatening cases must come first, Humphrey said. Many patients inundating the Emergency Department seek an urgent-type care and are seen through the hospital’s Fast Track service, he said.

Humphrey admits this area’s federally designated underserved area has limited options for urgent-type care at 1 a.m.

“We continue to work on it,” Humphrey said. “That’s a national challenge.”

Some residents experienced positive results as walk-ins at the Emergency Department.

Gail Davis, a retired city employee, was seen ahead of a half-full waiting area in the DRMC Emergency Department when staff realized she was in severe pain and her blood pressure indicated she needed treatment. A month later when Davis exhibited the same symptoms, staff had her history on hand to treat her and she hasn’t had to go back since.

“They took me immediately,” Davis said. “They were friendly and accommodating.”

Carolyn Wray of Pelham, N.C., didn’t wait long either after staff noticed her body’s system was shutting down as she grew dizzy when she entered the Emergency Department in January.

“I liked the treatment I received,” Wray said. “It made me feel 100 percent better.”

City council member and Dr. Gary Miller of Cardiology Consultants of Danville said the hospital has improved from three years ago. He acknowledges the community still has animosity left over from the sale and change of management, but would like everyone to focus on the future.

“That time is past. We need to get back on the same page,” Miller said. “We need to get the community working together. DRMC is a community hospital.”