Healthcare

The Outer Banks, particularly the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, is known as one of the best spots in the world for bird watching, and the annual Wings Over Water event honors this distinction like no other local festival. The week-long event, which takes place in October, features a range of educational events, speeches, and opportunity to meet and greet other birders.

It is the Outer Banks’ first and only large hospital. In February 1996, representatives from Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH) in Greenville and Albemarle Hospital (AH) in Elizabeth City met to discuss the establishment of a cooperative primary care health center in Nags Head. For this project, the hospital intended to purchase First Flight Family Practice Center. PCMH would supply two or three additional doctors, while AH would supply experts.

PCMH, AH, Chowan Hospital in Edenton, and CRMC proposed a $15 million hospital in Dare County in April 1998. AH withdrew its backing and joined forces with Norfolk, Virginia-based Sentara Health System (SHS). They intended to construct a $14-$16 million hospital. On August 12, 1998, two Certificates of Need (CON) were filed. In Kill Devil Hills, PCMH/CRMC desired a 63,000-square-foot (5,900 m2) building with 18 beds.

The united AH and SHS, known as HealthCarolina, desired a 20-bed, $18 million facility at an existing Kitty Hawk facility. The HealthCarolina initiative was supported by the municipal boards of Kitty Hawk and Southern Shores. The Dare County Board of Commissioners, as well as the municipal boards of Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, all supported the PCMH/CRMC collaboration. Outer Banks emergency physicians backed PCMH/larger CRMC’s proposed emergency department.

The PCMH/CRMC partnership was awarded the CON by the North Carolina Division of Facility Services on November 28, 1998. A $18 million, 18-bed hospital on 14 acres of land on US Route 158 in Kill Devil Hills would be built. PCMH chose to relocate the facility to Nags Head in June 1999. Nags Head was about $1.5-$2 million less expensive, had sewage, and was two feet higher. It first opened its doors in March 2002.