Atrium Health leaders on Thursday pointed to their existing connections to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in making their case for being a part of the county-owned hospital’s future.
Eugene Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health, brought up several examples of how Atrium and NHRMC have intersected over the years.
Since 2009 Charlotte-based Atrium Health has managed the NHRMC Physician Group and employs most of the providers in the group, growing it to more than 200 physicians in 39 locations. It also, through a supply chain partnership, has saved NHRMC $32 million since 2015, officials said.
There also were examples of jumping in to help in Wilmington during Hurricane Florence as well as in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak when testing capabilities were scarce and Atrium, which had its own lab equipment, began sending results back overnight for NHRMC.
“We were there with you in your time of need, and I think that’s one of the things that really differentiates Atrium. We believe we’ve just scratched the surface,” Woods said.
“We know your culture; we’ve been in your community for many years, and we’ve worked with the management and leadership team there,” Woods said during his closing remarks. “So we know your culture; you know ours, and we believe they’re very aligned.”
Atrium’s talk, the final this week from the short list of three health systems interested in partnering or buying NHRMC, was streamed online and on TV so that the public could watch. The talk was hosted by the Partnership Advisory Group (PAG).
A Q&A with the PAG members took place after the public portion and in closed session.
Atrium Health, the state’s largest health care system, has proposed a long-term lease over 40 years before becoming the owner with $941.8 million including $50 million in upfront cash to the county, community foundation funds, lease payments and earnings share. It also proposed investing up to $2.17 billion for future capital needs.
Carol Lovin, executive vice president, chief integration officer and system chief of staff for Atrium, said the installment payments approach had several advantages.
“We figured that this kind of approach would be keeping us aligned – the county, New Hanover Regional Medical Center and Atrium – for many, many years,” she said. “It also provides ongoing revenues and an ongoing revenue stream for the county to invest in economic development and other things.
“But at the end of the day, and oh by the way, you could choose to sell at any time,” she continued. “So we thought it was a flexible structure in which to propose.”
Here are some of the areas discussed during their presentation Thursday:
On charity care: Atrium Health provides more than $2 billion annually in charity care, compared to $864 million from Novant Health and $552 million from Duke Health, Atrium officials said Thursday. “So you’ve heard over the last couple of nights organizations talk about their community benefit, and what we would have you know is that Atrium Health is the largest provider of community benefit in the state of North Carolina both in absolute terms – you’ll see $2 billion on an annual basis – and as a percentage of operating expense,” Woods said, adding that Atrium is the largest Medicaid provider in the state. “It’s not just about the numbers … you have to look behind those numbers, how do we live our mission?”
On cancer care: Atrium officials said they would be able to “elevate” NHRMC’s Zimmer Cancer Center to become Atrium’s Levine Cancer Institute’s Southeastern North Carolina hub. “We’re really excited about taking this in and partnering with Zimmer Cancer Center and really bringing access to these expanded trials genetic counseling, the virtual tumor boards and the incredible evidence-based protocols that the [Levine] team has built that ensures that no matter where you receive your care, you have access to cutting-edge research and evidence-based care, no matter if it’s in a rural community or in a metropolitan city,” said Scott Rissmiller, an executive vice president and chief physician executive for Atrium.
On virtual health: Rissmiller said that a decade ago Atrium began investing heavily in virtual care and that NHRMC would be able to connect to one of the largest virtual platforms in the country. During the current pandemic, he said, for example, it enabled 500 COVID-19 patients to recover at home instead of in the hospital with the help of wearables for monitoring and home visits when needed. “And it’s not just in the acute care setting that we excel,” he said. “We believe in virtual health across the entire care continuum, whether it be from primary care virtual visits to in-school visits for elementary school children so that the parents don’t have to leave work.”
On medical education: Medical education presence has become a point of discussion during the talks since one of the prospects is Duke Health, and Novant Health signed an agreement with UNC Health to expand its existing programs at NHRMC if Novant is selected. Atrium Health is currently forging a partnership with Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest School of Medicine to create what they call the next generation school of medicine. “We believe unequivocally that the combination of Atrium and Wake Forest School of Medicine would not only be a phenomenal choice but the best choice for medical education and academics with New Hanover,” Terry Hales, executive vice dean for Wake Forest School of Medicine, said Thursday.
On integration: Lovin pointed to a statistic that over 70% of health care mergers and acquisitions fail to meet their integration goals. “We basically started a couple years ago to really develop a playbook for integration. And as we brought organizations on, we’ve gotten better every time, and we changed it every time because every single organization molds and shapes it just a little bit,” she said. “Atrium Health has a track record and experience to every single time meet or exceed the integration goals that have been established.”
Click here for Atrium Health’s presentation slides.
For a roundup from the Business Journal on the proposals, including links to video interviews with representatives of the three health systems, click here.
For a recent BizTalk interview with Ken Haynes, executive vice president and Greater Charlotte Region president for Atrium, click here.
