Business

Pardee, Park Ridge to partner on health needs survey

By Bill Moss, Published: May 31, 2012

Pardee Hospital and Park Ridge Healthcare, which have been locked in an intense turf war over the patience base in northern Henderson and southern Buncombe counties, have found something to agree on.

They have agreed to partner in WNC Healthy Impact, an innovative regional initiative designed to improve community health across a 16-county area. The WNC partnership, initiated in November 2011, is one of only a few in North Carolina and the country taking a regional approach. The partnership is currently gathering data to understand community health status by county to determine high-priority health issues through the community health assessment process.
"Pardee Hospital and Park Ridge Health have always been committed to pursuing partnerships that help identify and address community health needs," Pardee CEO Jay Kirby and Park Ridge CEO Jimm Bunch said in a joint news release. "We are proud to join with the Henderson County Department of Public Health to help people avoid preventable health conditions and live healthier lives."
In addition to pulling together existing health-related data, WNC Healthy Impact is contracting to conduct a community health survey by phone to a random sample in all 16 counties. This survey will start toward the end of May and continue through July. Updated health assessment findings will be available for communities by the end of the year. Hospitals and health departments invite and encourage other community members and partners to be involved in this important effort.
"This approach enables the opportunity for more coordinated and comprehensive planning while directing limited resources more effectively," said Tom Bridges, director of the Henderson County Department of Public Health. "We encourage anyone receiving a call from a surveyor to participate."

For more than a year, Pardee and Park Ridge have been engaged in a regulatory and public relations war over Pardee's plans with Mission Hospitals to partner in a health care campus in Fletcher. Pardee says the expansion is a key to its strategy of growth and countywide service; Park Ridge says the medical services are duplicative and predatory.