JULY 16, 2009 ISSUE
Blowing Rock Council Updated on New Hospital Plans, Fire Station 2
The plans for a new Blowing Rock Hospital facility call for the building to be constructed using a “neighborhood concept,” a design that features open, clustered arrangements of rooms around courtyards.
On Monday, July 13, Appalachian Regional Healthcare System President and CEO Richard Sparks appeared before the Blowing Rock Town Council to discuss plans for a new Blowing Rock Hospital. The plans include construction of a new facility at the current location and a shift in the hospital’s areas of focus.
The Blowing Rock Hospital, located at 418 Chestnut Drive, was established in 1952. The hospital currently has 25 beds. In June 2007, the hospital joined the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System (ARHS), which also includes Watauga Medical Center in Boone and Cannon Memorial Hospital in Linville.
Sparks said the plans for the Blowing Rock Hospital include a greater specialization in the area of post-acute care. Much like Cannon Memorial Hospital is anchored by its behavioral health and psychiatry programs, Blowing Rock Hospital will focus on extended, rehabilitative care, he said. Watauga Medical Center will remain the regional system’s primary provider of acute care (short-term medical treatment).
“I think it’s a pretty good plan. I think it’s solid,” Sparks said. “We’re also talking about the opportunity to do something that is very, very different.”
Included in the services provided by Blowing Rock Hospital will be long-term nursing care, palliative care, Alzheimer’s and dementia care and physical therapy. Of the 100 planned beds in the new facility, 25 are allocated for short-term care. The hospital also will house a privately owned physician’s clinic—as it does now—for urgent care. The hospital will partner with ASU and its future College of Health Sciences to utilize the work of students in such disciplines as music therapy and gerontology.
Sparks said a new hospital is needed because the current building is “in fragile shape.” While the facility poses no immediate danger to employees or patients, it would be very costly to bring the building up to code if sudden repairs were required, he said.
“It is just imperative that we get a new facility that is functional,” he said.
Design plans for the new facility call for the hospital to be constructed using a “neighborhood concept.” The ground floor will mimic the feel of downtown Blowing Rock, Sparks said, with a theater, soda shop and bookstore, as well as the main reception desk. Instead of long hallways, hospital rooms will be arranged in clusters around small, open courtyard areas.
“There’s not a facility like this anywhere in northwestern North Carolina,” Sparks said.
One challenge for the hospital is that it will need more land to build the new facility. The hospital currently sits on a tract of about three acres—not much greater than the footprint of the current building, said Sparks. The hospital is currently in negotiations with the owner of nine adjacent acres, he said.
Sparks said the project, while in the early planning stages, is currently estimated to cost between $9 to $9.5 million. A capital campaign for the new hospital is also in the early stages, and Sparks said the hospital has been in discussions with potential donors such as the Cannon Foundation and the Duke Endowment.
As it currently operates, the Blowing Rock Hospital loses money and is subsidized by the ARHS, but under the new setup, system leaders believe the hospital will be able to sustain itself, Sparks said. The current hospital employs between 130 to 150 people. Over the past few years, the board of directors has discussed other possibilities for the hospital, including moving it out of Blowing Rock, but ultimately they decided that it should remain at its current location, he said.
“I’m delighted that you’ve chosen to go this route,” said Blowing Rock Mayor J.B. Lawrence. “Any viable community needs to have healthcare.”
Council member Keith Tester, a member of the Blowing Rock Hospital board of directors, said he would like to see the council commit to be the first financial donor to the hospital, perhaps with funding over a 10-year period.
Fire Department Station 2 Nears Completion
The Blowing Rock Fire Department’s second fire station, located on Highway 221 south of downtown Blowing Rock, is close to completion, said Emergency Services Director Kent Graham at the council meeting on Monday.
Although the Blowing Rock town limits surround about nine square miles, the fire department is responsible for about 52 square miles in Watauga and Caldwell counties. The new station will increase the areas in that district that are within five road miles of a fire station, lowering the fire rating and insurance rates for property owners in that area.
The land for Station 2 was donated, and the building was constructed at a cost of about $360,000 using tax revenues from Watauga and Caldwell counties. A new fire truck will be purchased to replace a truck that will be transferred from Station 1 to Station 2.
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