A nationwide trend toward expansion of multi-specialty medical groups is reflected locally in the acquisition of Med Care of North Carolina by Wilmington Health Associates.

The acquisition was announced earlier this week by Wilmington Health Associates (WHA). The agreement between WHA and Med Care should be finalized by July 1, medical group officials said.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Med Care operates two local facilities. One is at 5245 S. College Road, near Monkey Junction. The other is in Jacksonville. Services offered include urgent care, occupational health and family practice care.

“This will increase the reach of Wilmington Health. It is our first practice in Jacksonville and will allow us to extend the reach of our specialists. It also provides better access to our patents in the Monkey Junction area,” said Jeff James, WHA chief executive officer.
Dr. Robert J. Kastner, current medical director of Med Care, will become Wilmington Health division chief for urgent care and convenient care. All of Med Care’s approximately 35 employees, including two full-time physicians and one part-time physician, will be “brought over” to work with WHA, James said.

Both Med Care locations will remain open. The “merger-acquisition,” as Kastner terms it, will give Wilmington Health about 485 full-time employees.

“These added services and locations allow for broader and more comprehensive integrated services for our patients,” James said.

“Closer integration is a norm that is going on in the industry. We see it as an important tool to pursue our goals of demonstrating quality, reducing the overall cost of health care and improving the experience for the patient.”

The area’s two major medical groups, New Hanover Regional Medical Center and Novant Health, have been aggressive in recent years in adding locations and scope of medical services offered. Some facilities are in what was traditionally considered the territory of the competing medical group.

Kastner has been interested in the urgent care concept for many years, and opened the Wilmington Med Care office in 2001. The Jacksonville office opened about four years later.

“I think there is a movement toward larger multi-specialty groups and I think it has been that way for at least a year now across the country,” Kastner said. “Patients can get all of their care in one location.”
With the acquisition, WHA will have 15 area locations. Included are practices operating under the names of The Children’s Clinic, Carolina OB/GYN, Convenient Care, and now urgent care. It already operates two convenient care offices, in Porter’s Neck and Brunswick Forest.

Wilmington Health is currently in discussions to integrate a Brunswick County cardiology group into the expanding medical group, spokeswoman Alysa Bostick said.

The Med Care acquisition will benefit patients and the business community, James said.

“With the additions of urgent care and occupational health, we’re offering a wider range services not only to patients, but to businesses as well,” he said. “And with a location in Jacksonville, Wilmington Healthcare Associates will provide health care to patients beyond our current geography.”

Merger discussions leading to the acquisition of Med Care were under way “for a number of months,” James said.