Granville Urged to Promote Health System
By William F. West, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
Apr. 30–OXFORD — The Granville Health System Board of Trustees has gotten the message: More marketing and a greater presence at the bustling southern end of the county.
That is what the board heard Monday night from one of the health system’s top officials, Carolyn Hill.
She led a steering committee tasked with seeking feedback from the Butner, Creedmoor and Stem areas. The effort to get a response is part of a master plan that includes achieving a positive name recognition.
Granville Health System, or GHS, is based at the hospital in Oxford, but includes South Granville Medical Center on N.C. 56 just west of the Creedmoor city limits and in the path of Durham and Raleigh sprawl. Immediate care and a specialty clinic are offered at South Granville Medical Center.
During Monday night’s trustees meeting, Hill presented more than a dozen pages of findings based on a pair of focus group meetings.
She said she particularly wanted frank answers to questions about the perception of GHS. And she said she expected to be bombarded with negative responses.
Instead, she said people told her of having had positive experiences.
One man expressed a need for long-term services at the southern end of the county, she said. She told trustees she later learned the state does not see a need for allocating more beds for such skilled care.
“But the central piece that always came up was the need for us to better communicate our services,” Hill said. “And we heard that loud and clear.”
The steering committee’s recommendations included conducting a physician-needs assessment for the southern end of the county.
The recommendations also included working with Emergency Medical Services to educate their staff about GHS’s available services because of the change in EMS employee composition over time.
Hill said GHS already has volunteered to help EMS with its employee orientation. And Hill said the committee recommended advertising in targeted communities at the southern end of the county and using events there to promote services.
Trustees Chairman L.C. Adcock praised the report as “splendid” and added “I found the reading to be very interesting” because of the direct comments.
Turning to the rest of the trustees on hand, Adcock said, “You’ve got your public speaking to you.”
The trustees voted to accept committee’s recommendations.
The study included some candid responses.
One respondent called for doctors who are interested in patients’ health and are not just in the profession for the money.
Another said the Tar River is Granville County’s dividing line. That respondent, despite being native to the county, told of only having been to Oxford 10 times, and went on to say GHS needs to build a case for why people should go to Oxford.
One of the negative responses came from an individual recalling being told — after arriving in 1972 — not to go to the hospital in Oxford “unless you want to die.”
The hospital’s nickname used to be the “slaughterhouse,” the same respondent added.
Another respondent said much of the issue is about perception and people believing “bigger is better,” a reference to the hospital in Oxford being smaller than hospitals in Durham.
Upbeat comments included several saying how much they liked the immediate care at South Granville Medical Center.
Trustees met publicly for at least an hour Monday and got a budget update from Chief Financial Officer Bruce Brooks.
The most recent figures, dated March, showed Granville Health System budgeted for $3,769,999 in total operating revenue and ended up with $4,060,122. That is roughly $290,000, or nearly 8 percent, ahead of budget.
Total expenses were budgeted at $3,650,987, but ended up at $3,661,172, in part because of salaries that came on line with the acquisition of a clinic in Stovall in the northern end of the county.
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