Staff Report
Rowan Regional Medical Center has asked the state for permission to build a 14-bed hospice facility on Bringle Ferry Road.
State officials disclosed on Tuesday Rowan Regional’s application for a certificate of need to build the $5.6 million hospice facility at 3287 Bringle Ferry Road.
Rowan Regional had made no statement on the project. Corporate Communication Director Michael Burton said Tuesday afternoon that he was waiting until sometime this week to make an announcement about the project.
Even though certificate of need applications are a public record, Burton said he didn’t want to disclose the proposed project because of potential competition from other health-care providers.
In a return phone call Tuesday evening, Rowan Regional CEO Chuck Elliott repeated Burton’s comment that the hospital did not announce its applications for certificates of need until the state scheduled a hearing seeking public comment.
According to the N.C. Division of Facility Services, the 2007 State Medical Facility Plan “identified a need for seven inpatient hospice beds in Rowan County.”
Rowan Regional’s proposal calls for “seven hospice inpatient beds and seven hospice residential care beds and will be located in a new building at 3287 Bring Ferry Road,” state officials said in their press release.
Inpatient beds are reserved for “patients who need acute symptom or crisis management” and residential care beds “are for hospice patients who do not have a caregiver in the home,” state officials said.
That location would be about halfway to Dan Nicholas Park from Salisbury.
The N.C. Division of Facility Services will hold a public hearing on Rowan Regional’s proposal at 1 p.m. July 17, a Tuesday, at the Kannapolis Train Station, 201 S. Main St.
The state accepts written comments from the public on proposals such as this. You must send written comments by July 2 to the Certificate of Need Section, Division of Facility Services, 2704 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-2704.
For more information, contact Helen E. Alexander, project analyst in the Certificate of Need Section, at 919-855-3873.
Late Tuesday, Rowan Regional officials issued a two-page press release on their proposal.
“The proposed site for the Hospice Home is on 22 acres of land previously donated for that purpose …” the release says. “The funds for the project will come from donations and hospital reserves.”
The press release quotes Audrey Belk, director of Rowan Regional Home Health & Hospice: “Our community patients needing hospice inpatient or residential care currently have no alternative other than to be admitted to a general acute care hospital or nursing home facility.
“With this facility, care can be achieved in a homelike environment with high quality hospice care. Rowan County and the surrounding area would benefit greatly from a freestanding inpatient and residential hospice facility.”
Rowan Regional’s hospice subsidiary is the only agency to apply for a certificate of need to open a “hospice home,” according to the press release.