In the aftermath of the derecho, several hospitals and nursing homes relied on generators as Appalachian Power Co. worked to restore power.

It took hours in some cases and days for others.

In all nine hospitals in Southwest Virginia lost power including, according to the Virginia Department of Health:

• LewisGale Hospital Alleghany
• Carilion Giles Community Hospital
• Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital
• Memorial Hospital of Martinsville & Henry County
• Catawba Hospital
• Lynchburg General Hospital
• Virginia Baptist Hospital
• LewisGale Hospital Pulaski
• Bath Community Hospital

All the hospitals had power restored by Monday. Giles hospital was on generator power until Monday, said Carilion Clinic spokesman Eric Earnhart. The hospital in Pulaski, however, didn’t lose power during Friday’s storm but in the subsequent storm that hit just after midnight Monday, LewisGale spokeswoman Joy Sutton said.

Throughout the region that stretches from Roanoke west to the New River Valley and east to Lynchburg, 18 long-term care facilities went dark or had to rely on generators for power. At one point, Roanoke officials discussed the possibility of evacuating Friendship Retirement Community’s nursing home.

These major health care providers will be adding up the costs of the storm over the next couple of weeks.

LewisGale Regional Health System provided me with an early indicator of the cost at the two hospitals that lost power by looking at the fuel costs. In Pulaski it cost $667 to run on generator power for 11 hours and 30 minutes. In Alleghany the cost of running the generator for 9 hours and 30 minutes was $1,515.

Hospitals in the Roanoke and New River Valley experienced an influx of patients coming to emergency rooms in the aftermath of Saturday’s storms.

LewisGale Medical Center saw 345 patients in its ER from Saturday to Sunday, compared to a typical volume of 250 patients, said LewisGale spokeswoman Nancy May. That’s a 38 percent increase.

The Salem-based hospital attributed most of the ER visits to the storm, she said.

Carilion Clinic also saw demand for its hospitals’ emergency services increase between 4 percent and 8 percent across the region, said spokesman Eric Earnhart.

At Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, the region’s busiest hospital, slightly more than 500 patients visited the ER from Saturday to Sunday, he said.

“I can’t say how many were storm related, but a lot of the traffic was related to the storm, including patients received or diverted from other facilities,” he said.

A contract dispute that meant patients covered by insurance policies from Coventry Health Care of Virginia could not use HCA Virginia Health System hospitals has been resolved.

HCA is the parent company for Salem-based LewisGale Regional Health System. Because of the expired contract HCA patients with Coventry insurance were told that they could not seek inpatient treatment at any of the for-profit system’s hospitals including the four in Southwest Virginia.

The two reached an agreement Wednesday, two months after the previous contract had expired, said LewisGale spokeswoman Nancy May.

The contract dispute did not affect outpatient services at surgery centers, imaging centers or physician offices, May said. Those areas are covered through separate contracts, she said.

The new contract covers hospital services for all Coventry products, which are known by a number of names including Southern Health, CareNet, Mailhandlers, and First Heath plans.

Coventry will issue a letter alerting its members of the new contract, May said.

Fewer babies are being born in the Roanoke Valley.

The birth rate in the Roanoke Valley dropped 15.3 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to data from Virginia Health Information.

It’s not a trend unique to our region. Nationally the birth rate has also been declining.

But, as Dr. Alice Ackerman, the chairwoman of pediatrics at Carilion Clinic, points out, “The region’s birth rate is significantly lower than the U.S. rate.”

Ackerman addressed the declining rate in a letter to the Virginia Department of Health detailing her reasons for opposing LewisGale Regional Medical Center’s application for a neonatal intensive care unit.

“Due to the decreased birth rate in the region as well as our continuous commitment to quality improvement, Carilion Roanoke Memorial has experienced a steady decline since 2009 in NICU average deaily census, occupancy rate and average length of stay,” Ackerman wrote in the letter, which I received through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request.

You can read the latest in that ongoing fight here, but I wanted use this blog entry to draw attention to the downward birth rate trend. Read more »

A child gets ready for a CT scan at the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago on July 27, 2010. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

Carilion Clinic is seeking state permission to move its existing CT scanner in Daleville.

The scanner would move from the former Daleville family medicine practice building on Wesley Road to the practice’s newer building on Market Ridge Lane.

It’s about a 1.3 mile move and Carilion officials had said previously that they would likely seek to move the scanner to the new location. Read more »

An ongoing battle with the state for a neonatal intensive care unit led LewisGale Medical Center to launch a petition last week to document community support for the effort.

Collecting signatures comes as LewisGale has filed a new application asking Virginia Department of Health Commissioner Karen Remley for permission to open an eight-bassinet NICU. She denied an identical request last year, saying that the addition of NICU services at LewisGale would unnecessarily duplicate and harm existing services available for the tiniest patients.

LewisGale’s chief competitor, Carilion Clinic, operates a NICU with 60 bassinets at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Carilion opposes LewisGale’s effort to open a NICU, and Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart said in an email that its NICU has “a consistent vacancy rate of at least 10-12 beds.” Read more »

Seeking to attract patients from people employed at one of the 140 businesses located at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, LewisGale Regional Health System will open a new medical clinic there Thursday.

The clinic will offer primary care services as well as walk-in appointments for acute illnesses, according to a news release issued today. The clinic is located at 1715 Pratt Drive, Suite 1100 and will be open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The clinic will be staffed primarily by a nurse practitioner, with a physician overseeing the clinic and assisting “with more complex medical cases,” according to the news release.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 540-443-3980.

Photo courtesy of LewisGale

Eighteen bicycles, 37 coats, 33 MP3 players, dozens of dolls and hundreds of other items were collected by doctors and staff with LewisGale Physicians and then sent to West Virginia.

LewisGale Physicians, which is part of LewisGale Regional Health System, decided for the first time to do the toy drive to serve one of the neediest communities in the country.

LewisGale opted to send the gifts to McDowell County, W.Va.

“Over half of the children in McDowell County live below the poverty level,” said LewisGale spokeswoman Joy Sutton. “Many of the families don’t even have the basic necessities. We felt compelled to help this community because of the overall need in this community.”

The gifts, which also included diapers, backpacks, books and puzzles, will be distributed to 182 children in the county. The recipients were identified by Abundant Life International Ministries, Sutton said.

Bonus: It’s the season of giving and LewisGale isn’t the only for-profit business that is taking time to give back to the community. If you missed it, read Amanda Codispoti’s column from Sunday on retailers giving back.

LewisGale Medical Center in Salem will continue its program that uses specially trained nurses to gather evidence while treating victims of rape, domestic violence, child abuse and other assault crimes. Read more »

Jeanna Duerscherl / The Roanoke Times file

LewisGale Medical Center is continuing its fight to open a neonatal intensive care unit to care for its tiniest patients.

In an appeal filed in Salem Circuit Court, the hospital has asked the court to throw out the September decision by Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Remley denying LewisGale’s request for an eight-bassinet NICU. Read more »