The Partnership Advisory Group is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss proposals submitted by six health systems to buy or partner with New Hanover Regional Medical Center, and the group could potentially create its recommended short list of suitors.
 
The 21-member Partnership Advisory Group (PAG) received the proposals March 16 from the RFP it issued in mid-January. Because NHRMC is a county-owned hospital and any potential sale or lease process is outlined under state law, those proposals were made public two weeks ago.

The public release of the proposals was slated initially for the end of March, but that got pushed back because of the COVID-19 crisis.
 
In the month-and-a-half since PAG members received the pitches, they have been working through them and discussing details, said Spence Broadhurst, co-chair of the group. The group is tasked with picking two or three of the outside systems to recommend continued talks with to county commissioners and hospital trustees, who have the ultimate say.
 
“We put a lot of work into it. We’ve had conversations. And that will be on our agenda for tomorrow night to discuss that next step – about whether it’s taking a vote on it at that point if we’re comfortable or our next step,” Broadhurst said during a Zoom talk with Wilmington Chamber of Commerce members about the hospital process. “I think that [recommendations are] obviously our next deliverable, and I think we would look to achieve that in pretty short order.”
 
The six organizations that submitted proposals were Atrium Health, HealthSpan/Bon Secours Mercy Health, Duke Health, HCA Healthcare, Novant Health and UNC Health. (Click here for more info comparing the pitches and here for the proposal documents.)
 
PAG members are using 18 areas to evaluate the proposals, which range from an expanded academic relationship with UNC Health to management agreements, joint ventures and purchase offers, including up to $2 billion from Novant Health to New Hanover County for an acquisition.
 
Broadhurst was joined Wednesday by PAG co-chair Barb Biehner and NHRMC President and CEO John Gizdic for the discussion, which was viewed by about 50 chamber members.
 
“We’re not eliminating anybody; we’re simply identifying our top two or three that we feel are the ones we’d like to get into much more detail and discussion with,” Biehner said. “We’ve had a lot of good conversation around them. We did receive some additional information from them, and we’re really looking to kind of focus on particular proposals.”
 
She said a public hearing will take place in the future.
 
“It’s just a matter of timing and logistics for that as well, so nothing will be totally eliminated,” Biehner said. “It’s more how best we move forward in a focused effort.”
 
Members of the Save Our Hospital group, a group that formed to oppose a sale or merger agreement, have called for the PAG to spend more time discussing the option of not partnering with an outside system.
 
“The overriding and number one goal is to maintain an independent financially healthy local organization which provides quality services to us all. That is the ‘seventh option’ which has been brushed aside by hospital and county management and has not been explored,” wrote Save Our Hospital secretary/treasurer Bill Shell in a position paper.
 
“If, indeed, some change is necessary,” he also wrote, “a partnership with UNC Health, which offers an ‘academic’ partnership, based on an expansion of the long standing relationship with NHRMC, which has brought us many physicians from a nationally recognized medical school, a partnership which would be threatened by sale to one of the other five suitors, is the best way to go. It leaves local control in place and local management would be responsible for, among other things, all staffing decisions.”
 
During its meetings PAG members have discussed pros and cons of maintaining the hospital’s current status as a county-owned facility as well as other structural changes that could be options, such as converting it to a hospital authority, that would get around what is seen as limitations on its current set-up.
 
Gizdic said Wednesday that remaining as a stand-alone facility is still part of the discussion.
 
“The partnership advisory group is really evaluating … three options: status quo, an internal restructuring and partnering,” he said. “So those three options all remain on the table, and they are all evaluated against each other throughout this process.
 
“The scoring system and the evaluation both Spence and Barb mentioned was not just an evaluation of the six proposals around those 18 key elements but also status quo and an internal restructuring … That is the process we are going through as an advisory group is to evaluate the pros and cons and gives and gets of each one of those options and determining and advising on what we believe which option best positions our organization for the future.”
 
The Partnership Advisory Group meets virtually at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The public can listen to the open session portions of this meeting, expected to be at the beginning and end of the meeting:
• by phone: call (415) 655-0003 and use the meeting number 805 810 361
• by Webex at nhcgov.webex.com: use meeting number/access code: 805 810 361 and password PAGMeeting