For Immediate Release

PENDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SECURE $50 MILLION COMMITMENT

FROM NOVANT HEALTH TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE ACROSS PENDER COUNTY
BURGAW, NC – June 16, 2023 – During a specially called meeting today, the Pender County
Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to finalize an agreement with Novant Health that
includes a $50 million commitment to improve the Pender Medical Center in Burgaw, North
Carolina, and increase access to health care services across Pender County.
This agreement is designed to improve health care across Pender County because Novant
Health plans to bring quality care to more people, thereby reducing health disparities across the
region.
In an outline of the proposal, Novant Health has committed to spending $50 million within the
next 10 years in specific areas that include proposed building and facility improvements, new
permanent medical equipment, and recruitment of new health care professionals to expand
services. A priority goal within that timeframe is for Novant Health to further develop Pender
Medical Center into a community general hospital.
“Novant Health’s commitment puts Pender Medical Center on a path to becoming a true
community general hospital within 5 years, something we do not have today and something we
desperately need in Pender County,” said Board Chair Jackie Newton. “The Board of
Commissioners is united around the goal of securing the best possible future for our hospital
and all our citizens. We have a framework of a deal with Novant Health that achieves that goal,”
she added.
Details on the negotiations are confidential under state law but support five key goals agreed
upon between Novant Health and Pender County. In addition to developing Pender Medical
Center into a community general hospital within five years, the goals include: maintaining
Pender Medical Center’s status as a critical access hospital, improving access to primary and
specialty care in Pender County, recruiting specialty care physicians to offer services in Pender
County, and maintaining and improving acute and ambulatory facilities in Pender County.
“This is another demonstration of Novant Health’s intentional work to improve and grow access
to care across the region,” said Shelbourn Stevens, president of Novant Health’s coastal region.
“This long-term commitment from Novant Health builds on New Hanover Regional Medical
Center's legacy of support for the community and its critical access hospital for over two
decades.”
Ruth Glaser, the president and chief operating officer of Novant Health Pender Medical Center,
welcomed the agreement. “Novant Health has already served as a trusted partner to our
community, and we are fortunate to be in the position to benefit from this strategic investment in
our county’s healthcare,” Glaser said. “We are excited about the success and future of Pender
Medical Center and what this means for our patients, our team members and our providers.”
Novant Health has been operating Pender Medical Center since 2021 under an operating
agreement that was related to Novant Health’s purchase of New Hanover Regional Medical
Center. The investment commitments announced today are part of the transaction that will make
Novant Health the owner of Pender Medical Center.
“The investment commitments Novant Health made will secure a better health care future for
our community and gives us the certainty that we need to move forward on more detailed
plans,” said Wendy Fletcher-Hardee, Pender County Commissioner and a county representative
appointed to the Pender Medical Center Board of Trustees. Commissioner Fletcher-Hardee is
also Vice-Chair of the Board of Commissioners.
The County and Novant Health will now proceed to finalize legal documents in September and
close the transaction within six months. “As we work toward closing, we know that our citizens
will have questions about what will happen and when. We are committed to answering those
questions as we have more information, but we are confident that Novant Health’s investments
will achieve the primary goal of improved health care at Pender Medical Center,” said Chair
Newton.
The County, in addition to its professional staff, was represented by Ascendient Healthcare
Advisors and the K&L Gates law firm who assisted in the negotiations.

Media Inquiries
For Pender County: County Manager David Andrews (910) 259-1200
Novant Health PR: Julian March (910) 782-9942; julian.march@novanthealth.org

Terms of the Agreement

Novant Health will commit to spend $50 million within ten (10) years of closing to support
achievement of the following goals agreed upon by Pender County and Novant Health:
• Further developing the current Pender Medical Center facility located in Burgaw within five (5)
years from closing into a community general hospital, defined under North Carolina law as a
“hospital that provides diagnostic and therapeutic services to patients for a variety of medical
conditions, both surgical and nonsurgical, such services being available for use primarily by
residents of the community in which it is located.”
• Maintaining Pender Medical Center’s status as a critical access hospital;
• Improving access to primary and specialty care in Pender County;
• Recruiting specialty care physicians to offer services in Pender County; and
• Maintaining and improving acute and ambulatory facilities in Pender County.

To achieve the agreed upon goals, Novant Health will spend the $50 million investment in the
following areas and more:
• Programmatic expansion, including physician recruitment and equipment investments in
patient acute care and outpatient services;
• Support of faculty salaries for a rural track of Black River Health Services’ Family Medicine
Residency Program;
• Ambulatory network development initiatives;
• Facility modernization and upgrades;
• Workforce development, including education and training, and maintenance of competitive
wages and benefits for hospital employees;
• Additional staffing; and
• Information technology, data analytics, and digital health.