Local & State Headlines

Rural ERs essential

• Officials discuss the impact of Phoebe Worth Medical Center on the health care of rural residents.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

SYLVESTER — Despite advancements in medical technology and delivery, something as basic as access remains the No. 1 health care hurdle facing rural communities.

“We all saw the challenges that Sumter (County) went through when (it) didn’t have a facility,” said Jim Hobson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, of the March 2007 tornado that all but wiped out Americus-based Sumter Regional Hospital.

“With our rural communities, the emergency room is so important,” said Keith Petersen, president and CEO of Phoebe Worth Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital. “Our emergency room physicians see everything from snake bites to car accidents to cardiac arrests.”

At Phoebe Worth, emergency room visits have increased from 8,456 in 1998 to 10,720 in 2007, Phoebe documents show.

“In Worth County, our primary industry is farming, and it’s a dangerous profession,” Petersen said Wednesday immediately following the 7:30 a.m. meeting of the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County. “These folks need top quality emergency care.”

Petersen and his Phoebe Worth colleagues were guests at the authority’s quarterly meeting, during which an overview of the facility was the prominent discussion.

In May 2002, Phoebe Putney Health Systems purchased what is now Phoebe Worth from the Georgia Baptist Health Care System for $3.13 million.

Although 52 percent of Albany-based Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s patients travel from outside the county, said CEO Joel Wernick, it’s still a goal to ensure that folks can receive care in their hometowns.

To that end, Phoebe also has facilities in Ashburn, a $1.5 million center that opened in 2007, Camilla and manages another in Randolph County.

“With the access issue, to be able to provide services locally, such as the (Phoebe Worth Cancer Clinic),” Petersen said, “it makes it that much easier.”

As an example, Petersen offered that recent work on Phoebe’s Medical Tower — the primary entrance to the Phoebe Cancer Center in Albany — coupled with traffic changes at the campus have increased the number of Worth patients receiving their cancer care at the Sylvester facility.

Cancer center visits have increased from 500 in 2005 (the center opened that November) to 3,600 in 2007.

Another component of access is the number of medical professionals in a community.

In Sylvester, Petersen said, there are six “active doctors” but 50 physicians, many of whom travel from Albany, on the Phoebe Worth medical staff. Petersen noted that a 12 percent jump in clinic visits so far this year has “to do with better physician staffing.”

Clinic visits have risen from 5,824 in 2003 to 19,780 in 2007.

Said Wernick, “There’s a direct relationship between medical staff and volume. Hopefully what we’ve been able to see in Sylvester is stability.”

Efficient financial management also contributes to creating a stable environment, Wernick said.

When the health system purchased the Sylvester facility in 2002, it was in the red by $386,000. In 1999 and 2000, the then-Baptist Hospital Worth County had negative net incomes of $2.6 million and $2.3 million, respectively.

In 2003, net income at Phoebe Worth was $21,000, and by 2007 had reached $283,000.

With 218 employees, Phoebe Worth is the largest nongovernmental employer in Worth County. For fiscal year 2007, payroll was $7.3 million and charity care reached $3.3 million.

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