New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s board of trustees is in negotiations with Carolinas HealthCare to allow the Charlotte-based hospital giant to take over day-to-day operations at NHRMC. The issue is not on the agenda for the board’s Feb. 22 meeting and hospital public relations director Martha Harlan said there is no timetable for a decision on the issue.

The hospital is not looking to be sold, she said.

In an email sent to NHRMC this afternoon, CEO Jack Barto wrote, “You may hear that we are currently talking with Carolinas HealthCare System about entering into an affiliation agreement. It is just one option our Board of Trustees has been investigating as they look for ways to remain strong in the changing healthcare environment. They have not made a final decision. Although, they have decided that we would not entertain any collaboration that suggests sale, lease, merger, or acquisition. Governance and ownership will stay local. They also wouldn’t entertain an agreement that will result in layoffs or cuts to benefits and pension.”

Under an agreement with Carolinas HealthCare, “the board would continue to oversee and Jack would continue to report to the board,” Harlan said.

Other details of an agreement with Carolinas HealthCare have not been fully explored, she said.

The prospect of partnering with one of the largest healthcare systems in the state has Harlan optimistic. “Imagine having access to the depth of clinical knowledge in that system,” she said.

“Very, very few employees would become Carolinas HealthCare employees,” Harlan said. Only Barto and a few on the senior management would begin to get paychecks from CHS. Everyone else remains a NHRMC employee. No layoffs are planned.

Without staff changes, cost savings would come from an economy of scale, Harlan said. A collaboration with a system the size of CHS would give NRHMC a great deal better buying power for equipment and supplies, for example, she said.

Carolinas HealthCare operates 33 hospitals in North Carolina and South Carolina. CHS, a not-for-profit self-supporting public organization, is the largest healthcare system in North and South Carolina and the third largest public, multi-hospital system in the United States.

In 2009, CHS’s revenue was $5 billion. The company has 48,000 employees, 6,300 beds, 1,700 physicians and more than 500 locations that include offices, rehab facilities and home health agencies.

CHS’s flagship hospital has 874 beds at Charlotte-Carolinas Medical Center.