Atrium, Novant compete in public hearing on ‘desperate need’ for more hospital beds
Atrium Health and Novant Health agreed on one thing at a public hearing on Monday — Mecklenburg County needs more acute care beds and operating rooms.
The state agrees. The state will approve six new operating rooms and 76 new acute care beds in Mecklenburg County requested in 2019, according to the 2019 State Medical Facilities Plan.
But Novant and Atrium have submitted a combined eight applications for 7 new operating rooms and 96 new acute care beds in the county.
Both systems gave arguments to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in a public hearing Monday, and heard from roughly 20 members of the public. In a months-long process, the state will decide which of the applications to approve.
Atrium has requested six new operating rooms and 76 acute care beds, and Novant has requested 1 operating room and 20 new acute care beds.
Charlotte resident Shawn Flynn said he knows firsthand how important acute care beds can be. In October 2018, his 6-year-old son began getting sick.
Flynn’s son was limping when a specialist told them to go to a Novant Health hospital. But there wasn’t an available bed at Novant for five hours — when his son could no longer walk.
“I actually had to carry him into the hospital,” he said.
Delays in finding a bed meant a delay in an ultrasound that found a cancerous growth in his son’s pancreas and liver. “We lost a day in the fight because of that,” Flynn said.
Months later, his son is now cancer-free. He came to the public hearing to support Novant’s proposal for more acute care beds.
Atrium officials said patients at Atrium hospitals also saw delays in waiting for a bed. Patients at Atrium Health University City emergency department waited 37 minutes on average to see a physician, Atrium doctor Ed McCutcheon said.
But they waited almost five and a half hours on average in the emergency department to be admitted to an acute care bed, he said. And some patients waited over 24 hours for a bed.
The proposed Atrium projects include its $147-million satellite hospital project, Atrium Health Lake Norman, with 30 acute care beds and two operating rooms; 16 more acute care beds at the Atrium Health University City hospital; 18 additional acute care beds at the Carolinas Medical Center hospital; and 12 additional acute care beds and two additional operating rooms at Atrium Health Pineville.
The Atrium projects would cost a total of $192.2 million.
Novant proposed one additional operating room and 20 additional acute care beds at Novant Health Matthews Medical Center. The combined cost would be $29.4 million, and if approved, both projects are expected to be completed in July 2023.
Atrium and Novant filed applications with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The state won’t approve more than 76 acute care beds in the county this year, so the state will need to reject some of the applications.
But the bottom line is the county is in dire need of more acute care beds, Flynn said.
“There is a desperate need for more space at Novant — and listening to folks from Atrium, there’s a need for more space there too.”
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