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  • Participating in the groundbreaking of Vidant Edgecombe Hospital’s $4.8 million dollar emergency department expansion were (from left) Patrick Heins, vice president-patient care services, Barry Bunn, MD, chief of medical staff, Vidant Edgecombe, Rev. Richard Joyner, Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Donald Morris, mayor, Town of Tarboro, Bob Nicolosi, chairman Vidant Edgecombe development council, Brookes Peters, MD, chairman Vidant Edgecombe director’s council and Ginger Gay, Vidant Edgecombe emergency department manager. The project is expected to take about nine months to complete. (Staff photo/John H. Walker)

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August 24, 2012

Vidant Edgecombe’s ED expansion under way

Editor and Publisher John H. Walker

TARBORO — “Finally.”

Emergency department manager Ginger Gay’s comment at Thursday afternoon’s groundbreaking ceremony for Vidant Edgecombe Hospitals $4.8 million expansion drew laughs from the nearly 100 persons in attendance, but there is nothing funny about the need to expand the facility.

The project, which expands the department from nine beds to 19 and increases the annual capacity about 28,000 patients, is expected to take nine months to complete.

Tarboro Mayor Donald Morris said the emergency department “is such an important part of the hospital’s role in the community. The emergency department provides the only (health) care some people receive.”

Morris said the expansion would add to the livability and quality of life in the community. Dr. Brookes Peters, chair of the hospital’s directors’ council, described the expansion as, “The next big event in the evolution of healthcare in our community.

“In the medical community, we refer to the ED as the safety net because it provides care for all comers at all times.”

Peters noted the hospital hired its first fulltime emergency room physician in 1983.

Dr, Barry Bunn, chief of the hospital’s medical staff, said that 14 years ago, the emergency room saw 10,500 patients annually — almost one-third of the more than 26,000 that come through the doors today.

“Sometimes, the volume is a little overwhelming,” he said.

 

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