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Tussle for patients risks care for poor
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 11, 2007
Last updated: 5:34 PM

The health care available as residents pour into the Princess Anne section of Virginia Beach will be fine.

The same can be said for northern Suffolk.

After all, new neighborhoods, their residents and their money, tend to draw plenty of doctors and facilities.

Because of that, the race between two of the area's health care systems - Sentara and Bon Secours - to bring small hospitals to Princess Anne and to Harborview shouldn't be much cause for concern. No matter who wins the fight for state approval, or if both do, patients in those communities will be well-served.

But that's not so clear in Norfolk, which stands to lose a hundred hospital beds if Bon Secours gets what it has asked for.

There's little doubt that the Catholic charity needs a new facility on Granby Street. DePaul Hospital is ancient by hospital standards, and doesn't meet the needs of doctors or patients.

Its executives argue that a substantially smaller, reorganized hospital would. They contend that Bon Secours would be in a stronger financial position to serve the poorer patients of Norfolk by - essentially - moving hospital beds and services to more affluent climes in Virginia Beach and Suffolk.

Bon Secours hospitals in Norfolk and Portsmouth already spend a huge amount of money to care for people who can't afford medical care. In fact, the charity spends proportionately more than the larger Sentara does. DePaul and Maryview are No. 1 and No. 2 in the commonwealth.

There's no evidence that Bon Secours intends to change that with its proposed realignment. What is indisputable, however, is that health care would be shrunk for people in Ocean View and Wards Corner and because of that, more convenient in Princess Anne and Harborview.

The drive behind such proposed shifts - Sentara similarly wants to move beds from its Bayside hospital to Princess Anne - has many sources:

• Populations are sprawling.
• More medical procedures are done on an outpatient basis, or with a minimal stay.
• It's uneconomical for doctors to get from hospital to hospital to see patients.
• Traffic makes it harder for everyone to drive everywhere, so no one wants to go across town for routine health care.

All of that is undeniable, and all of that must be considered as the state decides where to put new hospitals, and where to allocate hospital beds.

Still, the affluent will always be well-served by an American medical system in which access is determined substantially by dollars. What's less clear, in this and in so many modern medical decisions, is the effect such shifts have on the health of Americans without much money, and without access to the medical care the rest of us take for granted.

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Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500, includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.

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