By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó More than 100 people turned out for Monday’s state certificate of need hearing at the Kannapolis Town Hall and Train Station, about three-fourths of them to oppose Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast’s application to open a Southern Piedmont Imaging diagnostic center in Salisbury.
Twenty-four people ó including Rowan Regional and Novant Health officials and Rowan doctors, community leaders and patients ó spoke for almost 90 minutes against the proposed $3.4 million diagnostic imaging center, which CMC-NorthEast hopes to put in 5,300 square feet of leased space in Pinnacle Office Park at 340 W. Jake Alexander Blvd.
Two, CMC-NorthEast President Mark Nantz and Chief of Radiology Dr. Mark Fromke, spoke in favor of the proposed center.
Nantz commented on the outpouring of opposition from Rowan representatives in his closing statement, saying he could appreciate how they felt about having another medical center propose adding a center in their county. That’s exactly how the CMC-NorthEast community felt when Rowan Regional and Novant Health proposed building a southern community hospital on Moose Road near the Rowan-Cabarrus line.
The application was denied, but is still under appeal by Novant.
Novant had also filed a certificate of need application to build a diagnostic imaging center in Cabarrus, Nantz said. (The application was also denied.) “I think that is what this is really about,” he said.
Fromke said the new imaging center would allow better geographic access to CMC-NorthEast patients in Rowan County and reduce the wait time for the CMC-NorthEast Imaging Center.
Nantz said one in three Rowan residents choose CMC-NorthEast as their medical center.
One of the key arguments against the proposed diagnostic center was that more imaging equipment providers are not needed in Rowan County.
Dr. James Johnson, chief of radiology at Rowan Regional and managing partner of Piedmont Radiology Associates, said the CT, X-ray and digital mammography services being proposed for the diagnostic center are already readily accessible to Rowan County residents.
Including the ones provided by Piedmont Radiology, there are eight CT scanners in the county, seven of them in Salisbury, 16 X-ray machines and four digital mammography systems. The diagnostic services to be included in the freestanding emergency department CMC-NorthEast plans for Kannapolis would include two CT scanners, two X-ray machines and one digital mammography system.
“That’s why I am appalled,” Johnson said, “as a physician and more so as a citizen that in today’s economic climate, CMC would propose to spend $3.4 million to duplicate existing services without adding anything to the health care of Rowan County citizens.”
Johnson said CMC-NorthEast’s certificate of need proposal comes at a time when outpatient imaging has been identified by the government and insurers as being over-utilized, which has targeted the service for severe cutbacks in the future. “Nationally, imaging centers are being closed,” he said.
Barbara Freedy, certificate of need director for Novant Health, said the present providers of CT scanners, X-ray machines and digital mammography systems are Rowan Regional Medical Center, Rowan Regional Imaging Center, Piedmont Radiological Associates Imaging Center, Salisbury Urological Clinic and Carolina Oncology Associates, Pro-Med & Southern Urgent Care X-ray and South Rowan Medical Mall.
The Rowan Regional Imaging Center on Julian Road is one mile or three minutes away, she said. The furthest away is the South Rowan Medical Mall, and it’s only nine miles or 12 minutes away.
Freedy said none of the Rowan County physicians and radiologists who practice in the county support the proposed Southern Piedmont Imaging diagnostic center. Opposition comments sent to the Certificate of Need Section of the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation included a total of 1,551 letters and petitions of opposition, she said, including 73 physician and radiologist letters.
In closing, Freedy said the CMC-NorthEast application should be denied due to: “lack of necessary support for the project, 100 percent overlap of imaging modalities with existing outpatient imaging services in Rowan County and extreme geographic proximity to existing providers, which fails to enhance access in any way for Rowan County residents and failure to demonstrate quantitative need for the project, as well as the financial feasibility of the project.”
Granite Quarry Mayor Mary Ponds said CMC-NorthEast’s application for a diagnostic center is not one of need, but of duplication. “There is nothing that’s being gained or improved upon …” she said. “I can only see waste, greed and a sense of invasion on the part of CMC-NorthEast.”
Dr. David King, a China Grove optometrist, who said he works with both medical centers in his practice, related what one of his patients had said about the proposed diagnostic center. If someone is willing to drive from Rowan County to CMC-NorthEast for inpatient services, the patient said, that person would also be willing to drive to its diagnostic imaging center.
Rick Parker, vice president of clinical and support services at Rowan Regional, said the motive behind CMC-NorthEast’s certificate of need application is the need for an additional Fixed MRI Scanner for Rowan County outlined in the 2009 State Medical Facilities Health Plan.
“CMC-NorthEast’s request to establish an imaging center in Rowan County is only a veiled attempt to strategically position itself so they can file a CON (certificate of need application) for the Fixed MRI Scanner the state determined was needed …” he said. “The filing deadline is approximately four months from now.”
Dr. Joseph Zastrow of Cooleemee Family Practice said the current imaging services offered in Rowan are very efficient when it comes to scheduling and reporting results. Earlier Monday, he said he sent a patient for a toe X-ray and had the written report on his desk within an hour.
Zastrow said this kind of efficiency cuts down on potential mistakes, misuse and misordering of tests.
Dr. Robert Whitaker, an ear, nose and throat doctor whose practice is beside of the office building targeted for the proposed imaging center, said he would not refer patients to the proposed imaging center because it would be a duplication of services. “It is redundant, costly and unnecessary,” he said.
Richard Perkins, executive vice president of Rowan Business Alliance, said the county’s diagnostic imaging needs are already being met. “We don’t need any more banks in Rowan County,” he said. “We don’t need any more pizza parlors. We don’t need any more gas stations, and we oppose another imaging center.”
Others speaking against the application were: Dr. Leon Newman, Dr. Robert Whitaker, Rodney Queen, Vickie Pittman, Jamie Morgan, Dr. David Templeton, Dr. Chris Agner, Dr. Lester Brown, Dr. James “Chip” Comadoll, Dee Dee Wright, William Peoples, Sean Reid, Jay Streater, Bruce Jones, Ronnie Smith and Randy Hemann.