North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 11/06/1997

Left right or left. It's Thursday November 6. Tonight tempting the tastebuds with Tor Hill seafood in North Carolina now. Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of North Carolina now.

I'm Chana victory. Tonight we take a look at two health related issues affecting North Carolinians this evening we'll investigate how our state's growing population is having an impact on hospital emergency room services. Plus millions of people are getting the latest information on the HIV virus and AIDS from a special service located right here in the Tar Heel State. And we'll find out more from the director of the National AIDS hotline and prepare to get hungry as Garner takes us to a seafood restaurant that's been serving up shrimp scallops and much more since the 1930s. But first. No place in North Carolina is growing quite as rapidly as Wake County where the population has swelled by more than 30 percent since 1990. This population boom brings big city problems like overcrowded emergency departments. At the same time hospitals are trying to cut costs by staffing fewer hospital beds as a result people who seek emergency treatment in White County often get stuck in the emergency department for prolonged periods. Producer Judy van Wyhe reports.

In a Raleigh neighborhood of Baghdad three have been hit by a car. Paramedics carefully transfer the victim's broken body to a stretcher so he can be taken to the county's trauma unit. A Wake Medical Center and rescue one twenty three thousand three hundred forty regular but all emergency rooms are not equal. Imagine you're experiencing chest pains in call Nine one one. Your doctor has instructed you to go to Rex Hospital. But on route goes to code red meaning me a purge NC Department has as many patients as it can handle. We were lucky to have any patients to the hospital. That is a good base in reading except cardiac arrest. Instead you diverted to one of three other hospitals in Raleigh wake med Columbia community hospital a Western Wake Medical Center thank you just for the computer. Now on this particular day Wake Medical Center is handling 49 cases that need immediate attention with this ickle

we have 20 of us in the. In the security area. So that shows you have 25 more patients and we've got beds to play some man says AC some of the structures in the hallway and some of the patients that are in the different waiting areas and that's on a relatively slow day. It's not that busy we're able to we've just been able to just we have about 10 patients waiting in the wait was up to about three hours. The average wait is four hours. But some patients can languish in the emergency department for as long as 36 hours and wake med is not the only hospital in Wake County experiencing logjams in its emergency department. The problem is county wide. The result of several convergent factors the biggest cause is growth in the last five years nearly 100000 people have been added to a county census and like schools roads and sewers health care services are straining to keep pace. But it takes time to build infrastructure.

For example Rex Hospital started planning a new emergency department two years ago. It's taken us until now to actually have our plans completed and groundbreaking to start next March. To compound the problem many newcomers to the county who are having trouble finding a primary care physician turn to the emergency department for treatment. And while our experience here wait where those are the people that are coming in or are more sick what I used to do but they caught up in the emergency department is not simply a problem of more value sicker people. This is front Helio head of wake med's Emergency Physicians. It's a hospital problem. The problem here is that you've got patients in the emergency department they are not able to move into the inpatient wards. That's because the hospital is full. Well wake med is usually operating close to capacity. Rex Hospital of the second largest emergency department

in Wake County is not. Rex has responded to the cost pressures of managed care by trying to anticipate the demand for hospital beds and staff accordingly. Last winter the Rex miscalculated a severe shortage of staff cause the emergency department to back up and in turn the hospital was forced to turn away ambulances. That's that balance that we walk all the time making sure we have enough staff here anticipating as much as we possibly can without without inflating our cost structure to the point we're not being responsible about managing our resources resources translate into staff which translates into dollars and cents well over 50 percent of the hospital's expenses are its staff its labor costs. They don't want to incur a fixed staffing costs if there are patients there that they know can defray those costs or at least as little as possible they want to do that.

Jack aged five years emergency departments on how to adapt to a due world of managed care. A world where hospitals are cutting beds to save money he says in a managed care system. Many patients who used to be admitted to the main hospital are now being treated as outpatients in the emergency department. So many things that we used to see and admit we now have to manage over a six to eight hour period and make those patients get significant improvement so they can go home as opposed to staying in the hospital. Wake Medical Center has already expanded its emergency department and added services to expedite care funds Milioti admits the department can function more efficiently but implementing a new model of hospital care requires substantial time and resources. In the meantime he's worried about the upcoming flu season. Traditionally the busiest time of year for emergency departments were for more fall and the danger being that

if there's no place to see you what are you going to do. And you get to a certain point where patients health care is compromised. Rex Hospital is addressing the problem by beefing up its staff. In addition all four Wake County hospitals have gotten together to discuss how to levy a bottle. I think that the hospitals owe it to the community to figure out a way to make this problem better because it will impact on the health of the. In addition to beefing up staff Rex Hospital has opened 10 extra beds to help alleviate the congestion in its emergency department. And white man has opened up six. Also the Wake County Medical Society which represents all of the hospitals will continue to meet regularly in an effort to resolve the problem of emergency department overcrowding in Wake County. Well coming up a conversation with the director of the National AIDS hotline. But first let's check in with Michel Louis at the North Carolina now news desk for the latest on today's statewide headlines. Hi Mitt.

Thanks Shannon. Good evening everyone. Topping our news an experimental hog farm inspection program using agents from the division of soil and water conservation will be subject to oversight by independent committees division had duly bought says he's forming the committees to keep an eye on the program and avoid any potential conflicts. Inspectors with the division of soil and water conservation typically report to local boards in the case of the new hog lagoon inspection program. Several of the board members will be hog farmers. The inspection program is set to start in January serving Columbus and Jones counties. A plea for more time may put in jeopardy millions of dollars earmarked for the development of a low level radioactive waste dump site in Wake County. The governing body for the site says they will withdraw a 27 million dollar offer if North Carolina fails to produce a long range development plan by December 1st. But members of the state low level radioactive waste management authority say they need more time to consider another financing offer from several electric utility companies. The proposed dump site would accept nuclear

plant parts medical waste and other low level radioactive items from seven southeastern states. The State Board of Education today approved a basic education test to be given to teachers in the state's lowest performing schools. The board's choice is the California basic educational skills test. The test will be run through a number of trials to validate its use before being implemented in April. It will measure basic high school skills and reading math and writing the state's excellent schools X requires the test for certified staffers working in schools found to be low performing. This year one hundred twenty three elementary and middle schools were rated as low performing under the new ABC as a public education plan. In a related story Governor Hunt has announced the appointment of Phil Kirk to the State Board of Education. Kirk will serve as an at large member filling the slot vacated by former Board Chairman Jay Robinson. Kirk's resume includes his experience as a former teacher service as chief of staff to former governors Jim Martin and Jim Holshouser president of North Carolina citizens where business and industry and

Secretary of the State Department of Human Resources under two governors. In 1970 Kirk became the youngest state senator in North Carolina's history. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. High temperatures ranging from the mid 40s to mid 50s are forecast around the state for Friday all areas can expect mostly cloudy conditions throughout the day. Rain is likely statewide and business news anticipating future utility power deregulation PNL has begun to court some of the state's major electric consumers Carolina Power and Light has just signed an agreement to manage energy usage at 450 watt cobia bank branches in three states. Observers say Slepian else competitive approach is to build up an energy management relationship with major corporate clients then become the single provider of electricity for those companies. Duke Energy has a similar relationship with First Union. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. For

the past 10 years the CDC's national AIDS hotline has helped more than 10 million people across the nation. For right here in North Carolina and here to tell us more about the hotline as it celebrates its 10th anniversary is on the Israel the director of the National AIDS hotline. And thank you so much for joining us tonight for having me. I thought going first started back in 1996 in New York City and then it moved here to North Carolina. Why did you decide to make that move here. In 1986 they started with 12 lines in New York City. And the original contract was to be expanded into a much larger service. And so the game plan was to then move it to a place where a call center could be set up in North Carolina was deemed an appropriate site.

And that is where the corporate office of the American Social Health Association has moved over the last 10 years as you have been here in North Carolina. How has the service that you have offered changed. I think the service has changed because the information has changed. I mean the AIDS epidemic has grown and changed so much over the last 10 to 15 years. And I think the hotline has had to make every effort to keep up to date with that information and be consistent in the information they've been providing. So it's just an expansion of services in response to what's happening in the public. How many people are you reaching on a given year with The Hotline. It changes from year to year over the last number of years the actual call volume has begun to decrease. And that is really a lot of our call volume is driven by media. So when the media talks about an AIDS issue we get lots of calls spurts as media issues come up. We will continue to answer lots and lots of calls when things get quiet we answer less so on a daily basis it could be 2000 3000 calls per day.

Wow that's a lot of calls. Your typical person who tends to use this type of part of service. It really is across all spectrums within the general population mean that the service is available to anybody within the United States and Puerto Rico in the US Virgin Islands. Anybody who wants to use it can pick it up but I wouldn't say there's one particular person or another that accesses the service. How about issues what do people seem to be most concerned about when they call into the hotline. The issues haven't changed dramatically over the years just the information we provide surrounding those issues. Testing is a big one. In the early days it was tell me about the test and where can I go where it's confidential or anonymous. Nowadays there's so much more information about testing the types of tests that are out there and are they approved for testing for the antibodies so that's one big issue. Other issues deal with oral sex as a risk for HIV transmission condom use or sexual transmission questions continue.

You have mentioned that there is a lot of information out there about AIDS and age research but when you look at the numbers especially. The fact that AIDS is the second leading cause of disease between people aged 25 to 44 and that here in North Carolina there are more than 20000 people who have either aids or the HIV virus. Are we doing enough to get this information out to the public. Yes and No. I think that we continue to keep it in the forefront as something we need to be talking about and moving forward I think people are forgetting that prevention is really the message we need to sustain with all the new treatments with all the new opportunities for treating opportunistic infection or long term HIV infection. We're forgetting the fact that we need to stop the transmission. So I don't think enough is being done in terms of sustaining the prevention programs and that message and people are forgetting that for people out there who who have heard about all of these new treatments and how well they seem to be working for some people and they have a sense of false hope that

if I were to get the HIV virus I'll be OK. How do you go back to them and tell them yes you do need to worry about prevention how do you get that idea back of course pretty hard in talking with people based on what issues are they present to us online. And if somebody comes to us with an issue such that you're describing hey it's OK if I get infected we try and educate people on the fact of the treatments one don't work for everybody and two we don't have enough information of long term use of these treatments and that the only way to really prevent contracting HIV is really to protect yourself. And so we just again keep bringing people back to that prevention message. How is it important to have a hotline where people can just pick up the phone and ask these types of questions to a stranger. I think it's incredibly important. I think that a hotline which is anonymous offers people an opportunity to really ask pretty tough questions that they don't have people to ask whether they can't talk about it at home or with their partner. You don't see this person

but there is usually a pretty warm report that is developed quickly with the callers. And I just don't think there's anything better than an opportunity to get some information for the people who do call and what type of services do you offer. We offer a couple of things I mean one we offer referrals all over the country we have the largest HIV and AIDS database which provides things such as somebody who may want special counseling somebody who may want to see a physician who is more apt to treat somebody who is infected with HIV or AIDS. We talk about places to get more education if they want a program to become involved with. We talk about school curriculums and we send out publications and we have tons of publications that we can send to people for free. The other things that I think the Hotline provides are opportunities for groups to become involved and ask questions in a very non-threatening environment and that's what we call our group calls program. And somebody's particular teachers can call in and they can have all their students throw their questions into a hat so that nobody feels stupid about what

they're asking or ignorant and everybody's in the same boat. And the teacher will call with a speakerphone. Let us know in advance if there's any parameters of what we can talk about. If it's a young group we can or cannot talk about sex or condoms and within those parameters we're able to answer kids questions in a group format so it's much less threatening. And we do that with parents we do it with faith groups with military groups and a group setting to sort of alleviate that nervousness or frustration of not having information. What a broad cross project that you have and we thank you so much for coming and sharing it with us. Thank you very much. If you would like more information about the HIV virus or AIDS you can call the National AIDS hotline at 1 800 342 AIDS. Spanish speaking callers or the hearing impaired can call the additional numbers on the screen. On

the Waterfront in Morehead City not far from Atlanta to date there's a restaurant that's no less than a coastal institution. Baumgartner has been visiting the place for nearly half a century takes us to this monument to see through the place with the funny name. Officially it's always been named the sanitary Fish Market Restaurant but since 1930 eight generations of diners have called it Tony's after founder Tony seaman who started cooking seafood for patrons on his fishing boat then opened his original cafe on the Morehead City waterfront in this building along with co owner Ted Garner. Yes he was a relative of mine. The original building is just down the street from the present location. Captain Tony and Captain

Ted as they were known both died a good many years ago and since Ted Gardner Jr. now owns the place the name Tony's no longer appears on the sign as it did for so many years. This is the famous sanitary Fish Market Restaurant fried seafood dinner and it's a close relative to the famous short dinner that this restaurant advertised for almost 60 years. Just feast your eyes on this golden brown shrimp. Not to have any bread and succulent fried oysters flounder scallops and look at that soft shell crab. Man alive I think coming to this restaurant since the early 50s when I was a little kid and even back then I couldn't decide on what I wanted. It was always the whole fried seafood dinner for me. Diners who have been coming here far longer than I marvel each time they return it how the restaurants picture gallery has continued to grow over the years. Besides lots of pictures of local folks

there are the famous patrons movie stars like Clint Eastwood politicians including much younger versions of Terry Sanford and Jesse Helms whose love of North Carolina seafood bridge their philosophical differences and a bevy of pageant winners including Miss North Carolina 1955. For many a Tarheel family no annual trip to the Carteret County beaches would have been complete without some time spent relaxing along the Morehead City waterfront before or following a meal at the sanitary fish market built out over the water in a manner that wouldn't be allowed under today's coastal management regulations. The restaurant offers a fine peaceful view of the nearby marshes and from its deck patrons can steep themselves and a wonderful waterfront perfume. It's a blend of salt mud flats brackish water and the tantalizing aromas of frying seafood and sizzling cornbread from inside. Plus Puppies help make this sanitary Fishmarket restaurant famous. Back in the late 30s when this restaurant started folks around these parts were used to pan fried cornbread or baked

cornbread. But hush puppies were something special. People have come a long way here to the Morehead City waterfront just to get one of these for years and years these luscious looking fried scallops have been one of my favorite items. Rich moist melts in your mouth and no one cooks a fried scallops any better than the sanitary Fish Market Restaurant. Now as you can imagine most young people are too wild about soft shell crabs just from the way they look and that was certainly the case with me. But it didn't take long before they only looked one way to me and that's flat out delicious. Now of course oysters are an integral part of North Carolina seafood dining tradition. When I was growing up we used to either roast or steam oysters in my grandma's backyard not far from here or we come to the sanitary fish market and eat them fried to a perfect

golden brown. These are shrimp the way my grandmother used to cook them on her kitchen stove. None of those big battered fantail Gulf shrimp for me. The sign warning against drunkenness that was prominently posted outside the restaurant during my childhood is still there but is now more or less part of a display of restaurant mementos wine is now available unheard of in the old teetotally days. Now when you're eating fried seafood Of course it's traditional to have cole slaw hushpuppies and French fried potatoes. But the cemetery also features an absolutely beautiful broiled seafood platter. Take a look at that delicate like paint broil shrimp fish tender broiled oysters and my goodness look at the scallops lightly dusted with paprika. What a sight. Royal seafood came to the scene around here sort of late after people started to learn something about

healthier eating patterns. But it sure caught on. The seafood is every bit as delicious as well as it is done in the traditional fried butter. One thing that hasn't changed in a long long time is the cemeteries display of its own salt water taffy near the cash register also near the cash register you'll find John Turmel a man who's been with the cemetery fish market for 53 of the restaurants 59 years of existence. I have worked with every phase of the business in a fish market dishwasher cooking you know most anything the way they did and the rest of it and no one has to take their job. John tunnel is known for seldom forgetting a face. And when you think about all the faces he's remembered from the restaurant for nearly six decades you realize that the cemetery fish market really is the landmark restaurant on the entire North Carolina coast.

During the height of the summer beach season visitors often wait for up to an hour to get into the sanitary Fish Market Restaurant. Well that's it for tonight so please join us tomorrow night when Songer Williams takes us to the Morehead Planetarium. Plus we'll hear about how the Cammy award is helping to preserve and promote Carolina beach music. Have a great evening everyone we'll see you tomorrow night.