NEW HANOVER COUNTY — One week ahead of arguably one of the most important local decisions in decades, supporters of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center sale to Novant Health showed up in front of the historic courthouse.
It was the last chance for people to voice opinions on the public record, after dozens of meetings and hundreds of hours of research in the process toward the $1.5 billion sale of the county-owned hospital.
Donning colorful gradient pandemic masks with the three organization’s corporate colors, more than 20 supporters displayed branded sale materials and spoke glowingly of the opportunities it presents the community.
“Schools, streets, police, fire, food deserts, health equity, all the things that we stand for is what can be done. And, you’re bringing a first-class organization in here to not only increase the quality we’ve got, but accelerate it. And, a bigger connection to the UNC School of Medicine who’s going to bring more training and more residents here,” NHRMC employee Ed Ollie said in front of the courthouse.
“It’s like win, win, win, win. Everybody wins,” he said.
The public showing of support was a stark contrast to previous public hearings, which featured at times overwhelmingly skeptical audiences of protestors who begged commissioners to slow down (to no avail). Even the City of Wilmington’s request to take more time last year was ignored.
At the Monday hearing, Novant and NHRMC leadership urged Commissioners to approve the sale and spoke of the positive impact it could have on the region.
NHRMC Board of Trustees and Partnership Advisory Group member Tony McGhee described the sale as “the greatest opportunity of a generation in this community to embrace a productive disruption.”
Dr. William Smith, medical director at Cape Fear Heart Associates, told Commissioners the sale presented an opportunity to improve facilities that are currently falling behind the community’s needs.
“We have stretched ourselves and our resources thin,” Smith said. “It is not just common but really the norm to have patients waiting in the emergency room for hours, sometimes in hallways, patients in outlying facilities and doctor’s offices who can’t get in for sometimes days, sometimes with their condition deteriorating.”
His staff members often work late to finish procedures, Smith said, because the hospital lacks enough procedural and post-operative space.
Many supporters spoke of the positive impact an influx of health equity funding could have.
“These problems are fixable,” Scott Whisnant, community engagement administrator at NHRMC said. “You can’t let this opportunity pass. You just can’t. And the very fact that this process has become political is the best argument I can think of for why a county shouldn’t be running a hospital.”
Whisnant hit on a somewhat unspoken element that has complicated the sale and its intracacies: Yes, New Hanover County owns the hospital grounds and the physical facilities, but has it really had a hand in its success and development throughout the decades?
“Frankly, we’ve done it with very little day-to-day input from the county or the public — we’ve run as a business,” Whisnant said. When the hospital was built in 1967, Whisnant said it was the most outdated facility in the state. “As a citizen, I’m tired of us always being behind the curb.”
For many, the sale presents rural communities with an opportunity to expand and improve upon existing care. Ruth Glaser, president of Pender Memorial Hospital, said NHRMC can’t debt a project outside the county, which ties its hands with its neighboring facilities.
“Our citizens in Pender County are really more deserving than what we have,” Glaser said.
NHRMC employee Nicole Sutton shared her personal experience with the board, telling them of her late father who died at age 41 from colon cancer. He grew tired of six-hour commutes to receive care, Sutton said, and chose quality over quantity of life. “That is way too young to be giving up the fight to live because he had no local access to treatments,” she said.
Though they were outnumbered, the meeting didn’t pass without the cautious voices of remaining skeptics of the sale.
Last week, a local judge denied Save Our Hospitals’ motion to delay the sale because of alleged open meetings violations filed by attorney Alex Hall. Hall shared remaining reservations with commissioners Monday, focusing on the formation of the new community foundation tasked with managing $1.25 billion in sale proceeds that the county has designed to operate privately, outside of public view.
“You can tell the people of this county that their money that they’re getting — $1.25 billion — is from here on, we’re going to do it in secret because we’re a lot smarter than you are. And we don’t want any pesky people to attend the meeting to find out how we’re going to spend the $1.25 billion,” he said.
A majority of the foundation — six of eleven seats — will be appointed by new local hospital board, which itself will be designated entirely by the current sitting NHRMC Board of Trustees members. Per the Asset Purchase Agreement, Novant Health will ratify each of these new local hospital board members, although Novant has said it will not have any hand in the naming of foundation board members. Still, Hall said he sees this arrangement as overly beneficial to Novant.
“For them to say how the money is spent is like me selling my house and then having the buyer, say, ‘Oh by the way, I’m going to tell you how to spend your money and I’m going to tell you how to invest it,” Hall said.
Senator Harper Peterson also shared concerns on the same point, arguing that as the people’s hospital, the public should have a right to see how the profits from the sale get spent.
“It is onerous enough that the new foundation will not be honoring open meetings or open records laws, but will now have unrestricted control over how the public’s money is spent,” he said.
Related: Here’s how to keep up with the hospital sale as the vote quickly approaches [Free]
After the meeting, Peterson said the Attorney General’s Office is paying close attention to the sale. “I just want to make sure it follows state statute,” he said.
After so many public meetings, Peterson said he thinks those questioning aspects of the sale are deflated. “I think people are worn out coming to public meetings, getting three minutes, it’s sort of cursory, just going through the motions.”
Three commissioners’ terms expire this year — Pat Kusek, Jonathan Barfield, and Woody White — making up a majority of the board. Because the upcoming election could change the makeup of the board, Harper said he feels commissioners are pushing the sale through because of a fear a new board would not be in favor of the sale.
Monday, Oct. 5, commissioners will vote to approve the Asset Purchase Agreement, the use of net proceeds (how the $1.25 billion gets spent), the bylaws for the community endowment (the new entity in charge of managing the $1.25 billion), and the termination of the county-NHRMC lease. Commissioners approved the intent to sell resolution last year, kick-starting the process, in a 3-2 vote, with Commissioner Rob Zapple and Barfield dissenting.
Since then, Barfield has been less critical of the process. At this point, Zapple is the only commissioner still asking pointed questions and presenting critiques of the sale.
View more photos from Monday’s public hearing below:
Send tips and comments to johanna@localdailymedia.com
