Receive Top-Notch Health Care in Greenville and Pitt County
Residents in this eastern North Carolina region have access to abundant resources.
Rural eastern North Carolina benefits from a robust medical community and world-class health care in Greenville and Pitt County.
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Extraordinary Health Care in Greenville-Pitt County
ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville is one of the nation’s largest hospitals. With more than 1,100 beds, the facility is the flagship of ECU Health, a rural-based academic medical system.
“Locals don’t always realize it’s not typical to have this kind of large medical center in a small community like this,” says Brian Floyd, COO of ECU Health. “The flagship here is a Level I trauma center, which puts it in a very small category of medical centers nationwide.”
The volume of patients at the hospital usually exceeds that of hospitals in the nation’s major cities, Floyd says.
“Our region has a very large land mass but not the density of population of other places that have this kind of facility,” he says. “Our reach is through eight hospitals in the region, and about 130 clinics spread around eastern North Carolina to provide access to communities we’re serving.”
Talent Magnet
As an academic health system and a teaching hospital, ECU Health offers the framework for a learning environment while providing patient care.
“This is an academic enterprise that allows for job creation and career growth,” Floyd says. “It allows us to bring the best doctors and team members who are attracted to this robust environment, with the technologies they need to take care of the patients. So it brings care that otherwise wouldn’t be here.”
With more than 6,200 employees at the Greenville hospital and more than 14,000 in the entire health system, ECU Health brings about $4 billion a year in economic benefit to the region through its work, most of which is in the form of wages, Floyd says.
“Because Greenville is a small city, having such a big hospital means that a lot of the community works here,” he says. “We’ve worked with the city to help us become a destination for medical care by also creating the environment for people who want to do this work, so it is attractive to move to Greenville and take care of patients.”
“We’ve worked with the city to help us become a destination for medical care by also creating the environment for people who want to do this work, so it is attractive to move to Greenville and take care of patients.”
Brian Floyd, COO of ECU Health
Beyond the Hospital
East Carolina Anesthesia Associates (ECAA) is the Southeast’s fastest-growing, most comprehensive anesthesiology practice. Its Greenville location has 29 anesthesiologists and more than 70 anesthetists.
“I came to Greenville 32 years ago from Boston,” says Dr. Joshua Schwartz, an ECAA physician. “Even then, the medical community was vibrant and forward thinking. … More of a surprise was that this small city provided a wonderful area with outstanding music and art schools that had regular performances, helping us feel comfortable with our decision to relocate from the Northeast. Our practice has leveraged that environment to attract outstanding anesthesiologists from the top programs in the United States.”
Working in partnership with hospitals, surgery centers and physician offices, ECAA handles more than 30,000 anesthetics per year for procedures at ECU Health facilities.
For primary and specialty care, Physicians East is eastern North Carolina’s largest private medical-surgical multispecialty health care practice, and it has locations throughout the region.
Dr. Scott Avery, president, says the main office in Greenville offers primary as well as specialty care, including cardiology, dermatology, pulmonary and critical care, oncology, endocrinology, surgery and much more, with in-house lab testing there and at its satellite offices and state-of-the-art diagnostic services.
“Our 100-plus providers and 600-plus employees provide services for thousands of patients in a 29-county region,” Avery says.
With a patient-centered approach to care, Avery says all its providers work together to develop personalized health care plans tailored to meet patients’ needs.
“We are available when patients need us,” he says. “We know the patient and their health history. We help patients understand their conditions and how to take care of themselves. Since 1965, we’ve helped tens of thousands of people overcome their health challenges and fears so they can experience healthier, more fulfilling lives.”
Keeping Medical Students Close to Home
For the past 50 years, East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine has been working to improve health outcomes by training primary care physicians and keeping them close to home.
“We have a good track record of making sure our class mirrors the communities we need to serve,” says Dr. Jason Higginson, executive dean. “It’s proven that if you have a physician from your background, your chances of doing well are much improved. So, to improve health outcomes, we need to have people who are willing to practice in rural and underserved environments. We do that by recruiting people from those environments because they’re more likely to return.”
The school is No. 1 in the state and No. 2 in the nation for the percentage of graduates who pursue careers in family medicine. More than 50% of its class goes into a primary care specialty, and the vast majority stay in North Carolina, Higginson says.
The school’s Rural Family Medicine Residency Program just graduated its first class, with almost all staying in the location where they trained.
Higginson says the school’s Center for Health Disparities considers public health data that can inform approaches to wellness.
“We’re trying to encourage mission-aligned research aimed at the conditions our patients are experiencing, like diabetes or certain types of cancer,” he says. “It’s not just the School of Medicine, but the School of Nursing and the School of Allied Health training people for those highly technical jobs that keep an academic medical center open. Every person in this organization understands our mission and tries to embody that on a daily basis.”
Get to Know Greenville-Pitt County
Want to learn more about living and working in Greenville, NC? Check out the latest edition of Livability Greenville-Pitt County, North Carolina.
