HAMLET – The FirstHealth Board of Directors has accepted a recommendation from the FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Hamlet Board of Advisors to discontinue providing clinical services at Moore Regional Hospital-Hamlet. The last day for clinical services at the hospital in Hamlet will be November 3, 2017.
FirstHealth officials are evaluating future uses for the facility with initial plans that include repurposing the space for non-clinical services. FirstHealth is in discussions with Richmond Community College to create a simulation lab that will support education and training efforts for health sciences students. Officials are also investigating options to partner with outside sources to expand behavioral health services in the community.
According to FirstHealth officials, after the former Sandhills Regional Medical Center was acquired by FirstHealth of the Carolinas last year, a shift in patient visits to the FirstHealth Richmond campus in Rockingham and to Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst resulted in a drop in inpatient admissions and surgeries at the Hamlet facility. In light of that shift, FirstHealth’s administration has decided to consolidate all hospitalbased clinical services on the Richmond campus.
“The decision to cease clinical services at our Hamlet facility is difficult, but necessary,” says David J. Kilarski, CEO, of FirstHealth of the Carolinas. “Currently, the Hamlet facility averages two to three patients per day, two surgeries per week and fewer than seven imaging studies per weekday. Maintaining a highly trained staff with such low volumes is not a sustainable situation, especially when the same services are offered a few miles away.”
According to Kilarski, FirstHealth will continue to provide quality, accessible health care to Richmond County by and through its Richmond campus location. All of the clinical services, including surgical cases, currently offered at the Hamlet facility will be provided on the Richmond campus. The Behavioral Services Intensive Outpatient Services program currently housed on the Hamlet campus will relocate to Richmond’s campus while FirstHealth Convenient Care and specialty clinics will remain in their current Hamlet locations.
Sixty full-time employees and 22 part-time employees will be impacted with the discontinuation of clinical services at MRH-Hamlet. FirstHealth’s administration began the process of notifying those employees today and will offer placement services for positions available within the health system. FirstHealth officials say the health system has job openings and they will work with affected employees over the coming weeks to identify opportunities for their continued FirstHealth employment.
“We value the contributions these employees have made to our health system,” says John Jackson, regional president of FirstHealth’s Southern Region, which includes Rockingham and Hamlet. “We will work with each and every person to find them like or comparable employment within FirstHealth of the Carolinas.”
Medical records of patients of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Hamlet will be transferred to and maintained by FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Richmond, located at 925 Long Drive, Rockingham, NC. Patients desiring to obtain copies of their medical records or to have them transferred to another medical provider should call (910) 417-3688.
