Officials have emphasized boosting the health care workforce this year, including allocating millions of dollars in grant funding and expanding educational programs. Other expansions include a local clinic and local ACO.


1. Workforce Funding

Infused with significant funding from the New Hanover Community Endowment, a project intended to help train more health care workers
and involving several large area institutions got off the ground.

The Health Care Talent Collaboration is slated to receive $22.3 million over the next several years from the endowment.

The funding is split between the Health Care Talent Collaboration’s organizers, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Cape Fear Community College, New Hanover County Schools and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

UNCW and CFCC will receive most of the sum with about $10 million slotted for each. The money comes from the endowment’s strategic grants, meaning they are multi-year commitments.

The project is intended to bolster the area’s health care workforce by focusing on the recruitment, training and retention of skilled health care professionals in New Hanover County, according to the endowment’s news release announcing the grants.
  

2. Training Updates

Meanwhile, additional training programs saw expansions at CFCC and UNCW this spring.

UNCW’s Master of Science in Nursing–Nurse Educator (MSN NE) online accelerated program was awarded the Quality Matters Online Program Design Certification.

The program provides professional registered nurses the opportunity to advance their education while balancing professional and personal responsibilities.

April Matthias, professor and interim associate director for academic programs for the UNCW School of Nursing, was the program coordinator during the five-year certification process.

“QM (Quality Matters) is the international leader in quality assurance for online and hybrid learning environments,” Matthias said.

The MSN NE program is the first nursing program in the UNC system to receive this certification.

On the dental side, CFCC’s dental hygienist graduates made up the first class to graduate with local anesthesia certification, which has been new to dental hygiene practice in North Carolina since 2021.
  

3. Opioid Settlement Update

Local leaders in Wilmington and New Hanover County have been working together to allocate money from two nationwide opioid settlement agreements brought by state and local governments against drug distributors and manufacturers.

In the past four years, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein has announced $56 billion in national settlements with opioid companies to go to communities harmed by the opioid epidemic, including $1.5 billion to North Carolina, according to the state’s opioid settlement website.

The city of Wilmington was expected to receive $1.4 million while New Hanover County was allocated nearly $34 million, both sums to be paid between 2022 and 2038, the website states. The city and county have combined the funds and are working together on the effort through an interlocal agreement.

Last year, officials created the joint city-county opioid settlement committee allowing key city and county staff and elected officials to discuss deploying settlement funds in a direct and strategic manner. City and county staff members brought recommendations forward to the elected committee.
   

4. ACO Expansion

Wilmington Health has expanded its footprint in the area of accountable care organizations, or ACOs.

After switching to a different ACO model offered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), it’s now on track to be the second-largest group of its type by joining up with other provider groups on the project.

Physician-owned Wilmington Health has participated in accountable care organizations since the model’s early days after it was born out of the Affordable Care Act that passed in 2010.

Wilmington Health’s ACO, called Physicians Healthcare Collaborative, formed in 2013 as a Medicare Shared Savings Program model.

It has since moved its plan into what is now called an ACO REACH, or Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health, model.

With the agreements with other provider groups, the Physicians Healthcare Collaborative’s footprint now spans the Wilmington area, part of Raleigh, most of Florida, and Jackson, Tennessee.
  

5. MedNorth Growth

MedNorth Health Center has been planning for an expansion of its facility for the past three years and this year completed steps for a renovation and expansion of the center.

The $28 million project will allow the facility, 925 N. Fourth St., to expand access to existing and new services including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, dentistry, podiatry, integrated behavioral health, substance use disorder medication-assisted treatment and on-site pharmacy and lab specimen collection, plus new services for mammograms, X-rays, bone density, vision and physical and occupational therapy.

The new construction is slated to add about 30,000 square feet to the site. About 20,000 square feet will be built as a second floor over an existing parking lot, creating a total of 47 exam rooms and 13 dental operatories.

“Our mission is to provide quality primary care services. With a waitlist over the last year of 1,000 plus patients, the expansion facilitates access and the provision of the service,” MedNorth CEO Althea Johnson said.