There are some new players in the process to decide New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s future.
 
One group will play the lead role in developing language to request proposals about potential new management or ownership models. The other will have final approval power further down the road.
 
When the idea was announced this summer, officials said the final word on any negotiated deal would rest with the five county commissioners.
 
Since then, hospital officials have learned that the hospital’s board of trustees also would have to take action, NHRMC President and CEO John Gizdic said Friday during a news briefing.
 
He said any negotiation – if it gets to that point – would be a three-party deal, requiring approval of not just the county, which owns the hospital, but also the hospital board, which governs the not-for-profit health care system. Since Gizdic reports to the board, he also would not have authority to sign off on a deal without the board’s approval.
 
While the hospital board is appointed by the county commissioners, and Commissioner Julia Olson-Boseman sits on it as an ex-officio member, this brings a dozen more voices into the final approval process.
 
The county commissioners voted 3-2 on Sept. 16 to move ahead with getting bids from prospective buyers or management partners. Olson-Boseman joined commissioners Woody White and Pat Kusek to push ahead with developing an RFP, while commissioners Jonathan Barfield Jr. and Rob Zapple voted against it and called for delaying the process.
 
Friday’s briefing came the same day the Wilmington City Council released its agenda for its Tuesday meeting, which includes a resolution urging the county commissioners to hold off on the RFP until more community discussion about the issue can take place.
 
In the Sept. 16 vote, the county commissioners also approved the creation of an advisory group to work through the process now. Dubbed the Partnership Advisory Group, it has the authority to craft the RFP.
 
New Hanover County officials plan to release the names on Monday of the 19 people who will make up that group.
 
New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet said the Partnership Advisory Group has been set, with final commitments coming in as late as Thursday, but he and Gizdic said Friday that they were not ready to announce the members.
 
“I think the importance of the work requires that we thoughtfully present to the community who has agreed to do this,” Coudriet said. “I said to a number of people that I talked with, ‘I understand that in some ways you’re putting your personal brand at stake by agreeing to do this and so in fairness to them, we should announce that in a coordinated way and allow them to explain why they agreed – whether they’re open-minded to it, whether they stated they’re opposed to it, whether or not they’re very suspicious – that we should give them the opportunity in their words to explain why they agreed to do that, and that work just is not yet done.”
 
Coudriet and Gizdic did outline some details of the group, including that it includes nine community at-large members representing a variety of fields, including nursing, nonprofits and finance.
 
There are five hospital trustees, which were selected by the hospital board, and five physicians selected by the medical staff.
 
Gizdic said they let the hospital board and physician staff pick their own representatives so it would not be a group chosen only by him and Coudriet. Gizdic did say that the physicians include doctors who are part of practices outside of NHRMC such as Wilmington Health and that the overall group includes a range of opinions about the hospital’s proposal, including those who have been critical.
 
Gizdic and Coudriet will serve as co-chairs, making it a 21-person group, whose meetings will be public, though there would be closed session discussions for information allowed under state law, Coudriet said.
 
“It [the advisory group] is chartered as a joint committee of the board of commissioners and the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees. So the recommendations that come from the Partnership Advisory Group will go to both of those bodies for action,” Gizdic said. “Not only will the commissioners ultimately take action, and ultimately the county owns the assets, but the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees will take action on any recommendations that come from the Partnership Advisory Group.”
 
The Partnership Advisory Group also has the authority to decide which entities to send the RFP to for potential bids. The state law that governs how a county-owned hospital is allowed to be up for sale or lease dictates that the RFP goes out to at least five potential prospects.
 
Under that state statute, the RFP – and any proposals that come back – will be made publicly available (posted on NHRMCFuture.org). And public hearings are required as part of the process.
 
The first public hearing since the commissioners’ vote to start this process, which officials say could take the next year if negotiations take place, is scheduled for Tuesday.
 
New Hanover County Commissioners will hold a public hearing 4-7 p.m. at Snipes Academy of Arts & Design’s auditorium for input on the RFP. Coudriet said he thinks all of the members of the new Partnership Advisory Group will be in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, which will be moderated by Barfield as the board of commissioners’ chairman.
 
For more on the different options for changes NHRMC could be facing, including what would happen if it remained county-owned, pick up a copy of the Oct. 18 issue of the Business Journal.