Fayetteville Area Medical Facilities Provide High-Tech Care Close to Home
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The prescription for a healthy community of citizens and health care practitioners alike can be found in the Fayetteville area.
Not only does the community benefit from a diversity of services‚ but also providers receive tremendous support through training and continuing-education programs.
One key player is the Cape Fear Valley Health System. It is composed of four main components including Cape Fear Valley Medical Center‚ Highsmith-Rainey Memorial Hospital‚ Behavioral Health Care and the Southeastern Regional Rehabilitation Center. In total‚ the health system includes 812 beds‚ making it a leading medical provider in the region. And its technological capabilities are comparable to those usually found in larger cities‚ but with the personal touch of a community hospital.
“ Residents no longer have to travel to distant cities for specialized services such as open-heart surgery and pediatric intensive care‚” notes Richard H. Parks‚ chief executive officer of the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. “The broad array of services we provide is definitely a benefit to our community’s quality of life.”
Meanwhile‚ at Fort Bragg‚ military families have a new health care facility. The Womack Army Medical Center is a full-service‚ 155-bed hospital for active-duty military personnel‚ retired soldiers and their families. The 1-million-square-foot facility‚ which opened in March 2000‚ has a six-story in-patient tower with ancillary services and a clinical wing. Specialties include cardiology‚ hematology‚ oncology and pulmonology.
Fort Bragg also has four outlying clinics on the base: Clark Health Clinic‚ Joel Health and Dental Clinic‚ Robinson Health Clinic‚ and Womack Family Practice Clinic.
A third facility in the Fayetteville area not only offers health care services but also is widely renowned for its support of medical practitioners. The Southern Regional Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is affiliated with Duke University and associated with the University of North Carolina School of Medicine‚ Chapel Hill.
Recognized throughout the country‚ AHEC connects with university medical centers to provide continuing education for practicing health professionals in certain disciplines. The Southern Regional AHEC offers off-site degree programs for nurses‚ physician assistants‚ social workers and health care administrators. On-site‚ it offers continuing-education workshops and programs on innovative technologies and treatments. AHEC also helps to discern future doctors through a program that begins during grade school.
“ It’s unusual for a community the size of Fayetteville to have an educational system that runs from kindergarten all the way through to the medical degree‚ which is the longest training pipeline in all professions in this country‚” says Gerald A. Strand‚ chief executive officer for the Southern Regional AHEC and a fellow in the American Academy of Medical Administrators.
“ We actually begin identifying potential physicians when they are in the seventh grade. We work with these individuals at that point and throughout their high school‚ undergraduate and medical school experiences‚ through three years of residency and beyond.”
The Southern Regional AHEC also operates the largest primary-care group practice clinic in the nine-county area‚ adds Strand. Cape Fear Medical Center serves as one of the major training sites for the family medicine residents who serve patients there.
Story by Sharyn Matthews
Photo by Martin Bennett
