WHEREAS, Good Hope Hospital has provided needed medical services for residents of Harnett County for ninety years from facilities located in Erwin, but Good Hope Hospital cannot continue to serve Harnett County's residents without a much needed replacement facility; and

WHEREAS, Good Hope Hospital has been successful in locating an investor, Triad Hospitals, Inc., that is willing to finance Good Hope's required improvements on condition that it relocate closer to the center of the County where it would be more accessible to larger segments of the population of the County and where it would not be in as much direct competition with Betsy Johnson Hospital; and

WHEREAS, Triad Hospitals, Inc. would be investing approximately thirty-four (34) million dollars in the new facility, which would be located between Buies Creek and Lillington; and

WHEREAS, this investment would provide a significant increase in Harnett County's ad valorem tax base and would generate tax-paying satellite facilities on and around the new hospital campus, all of which revenues could be used to relieve the property tax burdens on our residents; and

WHEREAS, the new facility would preserve over two hundred higher wage jobs in Harnett County, would create at least sixty-four new jobs, would create potential increases in sales tax revenues for Harnett County, and would create numerous short term construction jobs; and

WHEREAS, significant portions of the population of Harnett County do not currently have adequate medical facilities accessible to their homes and are required to be transported twenty miles, or more, to reach their nearest emergency room which, in many cases, is located outside of Harnett County; and

WHEREAS, proximity to an emergency room can be a life or death issue for residents of Harnett County, and, when the median distance for medical/surgical admissions for residents in North Carolina is 7.1 miles, twenty miles is too far for Harnett residents to have to be transported to emergency rooms; and

WHEREAS, the proposed location for Good Hope's replacement facility would be accessible to all communities of Harnett County, including Anderson Creek, Angier, Barbecue, Boone Trail, Buies Creek, Bunnlevel, Chalybeate Springs, Coats, Cypress Church, Duncan, Dunn, Erwin, Flat Branch, Flatwoods, Johnsonville, Kipling, Lillington, Mamers, Neill's Creek, Norrington, Olivia, and Riverside, so that many of Harnett residents who have previously traded for hospital services primarily in other counties because of proximity would be able to conveniently receive treatment in Harnett County; and

WHEREAS, the geographic location of Betsy Johnson Hospital in the extreme eastern corner of Harnett County renders it an impractical choice for the majority of the residents residing in the population center and growth areas of Harnett County; and

WHEREAS, the evidence that two hospitals have operated in Harnett County for more than sixty years, that approximately fifty percent of Harnett residents leave Harnett County for medical services now, and that a private investor, after performing detailed population and market studies, is willing to invest thirty-four million dollars on Good Hope Hospital's replacement facilities nearer to the center of Harnett County disproves the current position of the Trustees of Betsy Johnson Hospital that the population of Harnett County is not adequate to support two hospitals; and

WHEREAS, a professionally conducted poll has shown that 84% of the residents of Harnett County support the efforts of Good Hope and Triad Hospitals, Inc. to replace the existing Good Hope Hospital facility so that Good Hope can continue to provide medical services to Harnett County's residents while only 9% oppose; and

WHEREAS, contrary to the claims of the Trustees of Betsy Johnson Hospital, the North Carolina Certificate of Need Section has determined that the Good Hope Hospital project will adequately meet the health-related needs of medically underserved groups, specifically including medically indigent or low income persons, Medicaid and Medicare recipients, racial and ethnic minorities, women, elderly and handicapped persons; and

WHEREAS, the opposition of the Trustees of Betsy Johnson Hospital affects not only the accessibility of medical services for all Harnett County residents but also threatens the good will among the various communities of Harnett County and the opportunities for future economic development in Harnett County.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the undersigned organizations request that the Trustees of Betsy Johnson Hospital cease opposition and instead support the efforts of Good Hope Hospital to construct a replacement hospital at the proposed location near the center of the County.  Further, that a copy of this Resolution be forwarded to the Chairman of the Board of Good Hope Hospital, 410 Denim Drive, Erwin, North Carolina 28339.