Sentara to cease services at Kitty Hawk location BY MICHELLE WAGNER

Sentara to cease services at Kitty Hawk location

BY MICHELLE WAGNER
The Outer Banks Sentinel

BY MICHELLE WAGNER

BY MICHELLE WAGNER

Sentara Albemarle Medical Center has announced that it will no longer provide services at its Kitty Hawk location as of Dec. 15 due to mechanical and structural problems with the nearly 30-year-old healthcare facility.

“Following three recent building assessments, we realized the breadth of these structural issues,” Sentara Marketing and Communications Advisor Annya Soucy told the Sentinel. “So we are unable to provide the healthcare services to required standards.”

Sentara took over the former Regional Medical Center in 2014, Soucy said. The facility currently employs 42 people and provides services in urgent care, family medicine, orthopedic and sports medicine, ob/gyn and outpatient surgery. Since late August, the Advanced Imaging Center, Sentara Therapy Center and Outpatient Laboratory on site have been closed due to air quality and other building problems.

Aside from Sentara Cardiology Specialists, located in an adjacent office building, all those services will end in December. However, Sentara will maintain its presence at its family medicine practices in Manteo and Moyock as well.

As for emergency services, Soucy said that Sentara Nightingale air ambulance and inter-hospital ground transport would still be available.

Soucy said Sentara is currently working on a transition plan for both employees and patients, and said that information for patients regarding transfer of medical records and other information is available on its website.

Sentara began making repairs to the building after taking over operation three years ago, Soucy said. “We made lots of repairs, to the roof in particular.” However, she said, multiple major issues were discovered regarding the HVAC, air quality and building structure.

The building is owned by Pasquotank County and was built in two phases, the first taking place in 1991 and the last being completed in 2003.

According to Dare County Manager Bobby Outten, the county’s Emergency Medical Services will not be impacted by the closure.

“The majority of our EMS calls go to the [Outer Banks] hospital,” he said, adding that, with Dare MedFlight, Nightingale services are only used as “kind of a backup.”