Crisis brewing at HRMC

Doctors, patients, nurses, ambulance drivers — even hospital board members — were unaware of a crisis brewing at Haywood Regional Medical Center that jeopardized its Medicare and Medicaid status and, as a result, the future of the hospital.

The search for solutions: HRMC steps up to help fix mental health care

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Emergency rooms crowded with mentally ill patients. Sheriff’s deputies spending 96 hours supervising one individual. A sick man or woman whose situation is growing more dire by the second. It all adds up to a recipe for disaster — and North Carolina’s mental health care system is in imminent danger of becoming just that.

Orthopedist shortage costs HRMC patients, revenue

Every morning, the dispatcher for Haywood Emergency Medical Services starts his shift with a call to the emergency room of Haywood Regional Medical Center.

“Is there an orthopedist on call today?” the dispatcher asks.

Hospital response to story raises questions

An article that appeared in The Smoky Mountain News opinion section two weeks ago based on an anonymous interview with several nurses from the Haywood Regional Medical Center Emergency department prompted a rebuttal from hospital employees last week.

Commissioners give HRMC board vote of confidence

All three Haywood Regional Medical Center board members were reappointed this week for another three years by the Haywood County commissioners.

Nurses deserve support for speaking up

By Michael Rey

I would like to offer some words of support for those Emergency Department Nurses at Haywood Regional Medical Center who were brave enough to contribute to the debate over recent changes there (I am referring to the article that appeared in The Smoky Mountain News on April 24). Even speaking anonymously, they have all put their jobs on the line.

New ER director says transition going well

The board of the Haywood Regional Medical Center heard a glowing report last week on how the hospital’s emergency department is going following an abrupt transition four months ago.

Nurses need more support, applicants say

One of the top issues that emerged during county commissioner interviews of hospital board applicants last week was the need for better-trained, better-paid and additional nurses at Haywood Regional Medical Center.

Deteriorating perception of HRMC a focus of interviews

The rift between Haywood Regional Medical Center administration and the medical community needs to be repaired, and public confidence in the hospital restored, Haywood County commissioners said last week.

Hospital board appointments could be litmus test

Many in the community will be watching closely in April when the Haywood County Board of Commissioners appoint three members to the board of Haywood Regional Medical Center.

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