Healthcare systems try to keep pace with rapid growth

Think how far healthcare has come in Sussex County over the past few decades.

Beebe Healthcare, Bayhealth and TidalHealth, the three Sussex hospital systems, have expanded and grown to an amazing level. More than $1 billion has been invested in providing healthcare to the rapidly increasing Sussex population.

The healthcare systems have branched out to provide much-needed services to areas in the county without a hospital in their communities, including Georgetown and other areas in the middle and southeastern part of the county.

So much expansion has taken place that it’s hard to ascertain exactly where the boundaries are.

And along the way, other medical facilities have been built, such as Atracare in Lewes and Ocean View, and La Red and Sun Behavioral Health in Georgetown.

And many more are planned or under construction. Atracare, which offers pediatrics, primary care and urgent care in Lewes, is planning a larger facility on Plantation Road.

For the first time since data was collected, healthcare workers became the No. 1 job category in Sussex County, surpassing jobs in the tourism and service industries.

When you consider the growing number of senior-living facilities, even more jobs are available to healthcare workers.

How far we have come. I grew up in an time when your family doctor actually made house calls. There was one local pharmacy in town, and trips to larger cities for specialty care were commonplace.

Beebe Healthcare

Many people are aware of the progress of Beebe Healthcare, which is one of the few independent health services in the region. Beebe was founded by brothers Dr. Richard and Dr. James Beebe in 1916 as the first hospital in Sussex County.

That first hospital on Savannah Road, where it still is today, only had four rooms – one for operations and two for up to three patients.

Major donations from Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Shaw in 1921 helped expand the hospital to 35 beds, and the rest is history. The white Shaw building is still in use as Beebe’s R. Randall Rollins Center for Medical Education.

The Beebe Nursing School has been open since 1921.

During World War II, Beebe played a critical role in treating the war wounded, including merchant mariners and U.S. Navy sailors whose ships had been torpedoed off the East Coast by German submarines.

Beebe has expanded so much over the past few years that it’s hard to keep track of it all. The health system has offices of various types, including primary care, lab work and walk-in services, in Millville, Milford, Oak Orchard, Millsboro, Georgetown, Milton and Long Neck. The new Jerry Ann McLamb Medical Pavilion will open soon in Milton along Route 16.

Beebe opened its South Coastal Health Campus emergency department near Millville in May 2020 and then its second cancer center in July.

During that same time period, Beebe had embarked on one of its biggest projects in its history. The $125 million, 135,000-square-foot Specialty Surgical Hospital opened May 16, 2020, on Warrington Road near Rehoboth Beach.

The hospital joined the large Rehoboth Health Campus, which includes the Tunnell Cancer Center, on Route 24.

Beebe also has a strong outreach program with its new mobile health clinic, which became operational in October 2022.

Beebe employs 3,500 people, and 420 doctors and 190 advanced practice providers.

TidalHealth

Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, along the shores of the Nanticoke River in Seaford, has roots dating back to 1945. It took five years before ground-breaking ceremonies took place July 4, 1950. It was such a great milestone for not only Seaford, but also all of western Sussex. The town had a parade that day to celebrate.

The hospital opened its doors Jan. 28, 1952. Among the major pushes behind the creation of the hospital were members of the Seaford Volunteer Fire Department ambulance corps, who had witnessed too many deaths because transports took 30 to 45 minutes to the nearest hospital.

Nanticoke Health Services merged with Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury, Md., in 2020 to become TidalHealth.

The main hospital has 99 beds, and during a typical year, it has more than 5,500 admissions, 35,000 people at the emergency room and 105,000 outpatient procedures.

TidalHealth also has the Allen Cancer Center and Mears Campus in Seaford. Overall, TidalHealth has more than 5,000 employees, with facilities in Seaford, Bridgeville, Millsboro, Delmar, Laurel and Georgetown in Sussex County, and in Salisbury, Berlin, Princess Anne, Pocomoke City and Snow Hill in Maryland.

Bayhealth 

Bayhealth includes its Sussex Campus, Kent Campus (the former Kent General Hospital), a new emergency and urgent care center on Route 9 between Lewes and Milton, an emergency facility in Smyrna, as well as numerous satellite offices in both counties.

In Sussex, Milford Memorial Hospital, where my daughter was born, opened in 1938 and grew to include 100 beds. A school of nursing was added in 1954, and in 2002, a cancer center opened.

On Feb. 5, 2019, the Bayhealth Sussex Campus, located off Route 1 on the southern border of the City of Milford, closed the doors of its original hospital and opened the doors to the new $314 million, 440,000-square-foot, 316-bed hospital.

The campus continues to grow with Nemours and PAM (post-acute medical) Health facilities.

Overall, Bayhealth has more than 4,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 400.

Growing senior population

Even with all of the new services and facilities, people still complain about finding doctors and the length of time it can take to get an appointment with a specialist.

Because Sussex County’s population is growing so fast, it’s hard for healthcare systems to keep pace. In eastern Sussex, many of the new residents are senior transplants who have moved here from other states.

I can’t imagine starting over finding new healthcare providers. I’ve used the same ones in Seaford most of my life.

The vast majority of housing construction in the state over the past five years has been in Sussex County, with no major slowdowns in the immediate future.

It’s a sure bet that the healthcare systems are already working on plans to expand and add more services in the near future.