A new state initiative for rural healthcare will help reopen a hospital in Martin County. The NC Care Hospital investment will provide $150 million to rural hospitals across North Carolina.
The UNC System is in charge of distributing the funds, and the state's public university hospitals will operate the facilities. Half of the money will go to ECU Health and the other to UNC Health.
Earlier this month, the UNC Board of Governors voted to allocate $35 million for the Martin County reopening. UNC System President Peter Hans said he hopes the money will "jump start" investments in rural healthcare.
"The huge disparities in quality and access of care across the state – you can see it in the life spans that differ by decades, literally from parts of North Carolina," Hans said. "All of this was intended to be a catalyst for (ECU Health and UNC Health) that have a public mission in those rural areas."
Martin General Hospital closed in 2023, after more than half a century serving the county. The vacancy left a rural healthcare desert in the 21,000-population county, with the nearest hospital being over 20 minutes away in Beaufort County.
Dawn Carter, one of the county's healthcare consultants, said the closure had a ripple effect on Martin's medical care options.
"When rural hospitals close, the rest of the healthcare infrastructure is also dismantled," Carter said. "Most of the providers are gone, so it's hard to get an appointment with a physician provider in the community. You're having to travel outside the county for primary care. And it's really had a significant impact (on) EMS… it just puts a huge burden on the system."
Carter is the founder of Ascendient, a company Martin County's Commissioners hired while the hospital was still operational. It shut down two years ago after its operator, Williamston Hospital Corporation, went bankrupt. The county, which now owns the hospital, has been trying to reopen the facility ever since.
"(The process) is not as fast as any of us want, particularly the residents of Martin County," Carter said. "... we pursued several different avenues for getting something reopened, even if it wasn't a permanent facility. But the nature of the (bankruptcy filing) did not enable us to have any open avenues to try to get something even on a temporary basis."
The county's commissioners ultimately decided to reopen the facility under a special federal designation: a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH).
Congress launched the REH designation in 2023 in response to several rural hospital closures. It allows hospitals to still receive Medicare funds without providing full-service inpatient care. The designation is limited to rural facilities with less than 50 beds, and allows them to provide emergency department and observation care services.
Carter said the model is beneficial for Martin County, which fluctuated between only about five to a dozen people receiving inpatient care in the last few years it was operational.
"In so many places, they just have nothing. And so the idea was that we're going to make sure that we have access to critical services, even if inpatient services are not sustainable, too difficult to staff – we want an access point," Carter said.
The federal government also provides Rural Emergency Hospitals with an additional "facility fee," which Carter said is essentially a stipend to provide specialized services.
If Martin County's Commissioners approves its proposal, ECU Health will ultimately decide the specific services the hospital offers. Carter said the county anticipates the emergency department will operate similarly to how it did before it closed.
"You know, emergency rooms across the state, whoever comes into the door is who comes in the door and they have to be ready to take care of them," Carter said. "So any age, any diagnoses – they're going to be ready to, at a minimum, stabilize them and determine where they need to go from there. But many of the patients, we expect, will be able to be treated there."
Eventually, the county plans to either add on to Martin General Hospital or construct a new facility. According to Carter, the current building is equipped to operate as a Rural Emergency Hospital for a few years, but its infrastructure won't last forever.
"We know we're going to need to find funds somewhere to help us with construction of a new facility," Carter said. "... it's very hard for communities on their own, that are already economically challenged, to try to come up with the kind of money that it takes to invest in a facility like this. So, I think help from any corridor to make this be a reality is going to be welcomed."
It's unclear when Martin General Hospital will officially reopen. Carter said ECU Health has outlined four phases in its estimated timeline to resume the facility's services, and the work will likely take months. When the hospital does open back up, however, it'll be the first Rural Emergency Hospital in North Carolina.
Martin County's Commissioners are holding a meeting for the public to hear and respond to ECU Health's proposal. It's set for June 4th at 7:00 pm.
The other counties receiving funds from the $150 million NC Care Hospital initiative are Duplin, Lenoir, Onslow, Rockingham, and Wayne.
WUNC partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
