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CMC-NorthEast sees success after merger
(Independent Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 3--CONCORD -- The green tree of life logos are up all over the CMC-NorthEast campus. Construction on the eastern side of campus will soon complete a new surgical wing. But a year ago, there was trepidation and uncertainty about the merger of NorthEast Medical Center and Carolinas HealthCare System.
Mark Nantz, now the president of CMC-NorthEast, said there was fear in the community the hospital would lose its identity.
"Carolinas HealthCare System and the board at the time made some commitments that are truly coming to pass," Nantz said.
The hospital, founded by textile magnate Charles A. Cannon in 1937, has grown from a one-building medical institution to major medical complex on U.S. 29. The last surviving major Cannon institution left in Cabarrus County, the hospital and its subsidiary medical practices employs about 4,300 people -- almost the same number of employees that lost their jobs when Pillowtex closed in 2003.
It is now the largest single employer in the county, Nantz said, and it is a key to the county's future.
Since the merger, Nantz said the hospital added about 200 full-time equivalent jobs. The hospital is also expanding its specialty offerings through a breast heath center, filing a certificate of need with Stanly Regional Medical Center for a new rehabilitation hospital in Concord and moving forward with a freestanding emergency department in Harrisburg. CMC-NorthEast and Cabarrus Family Medicine also will have a presence at the North Carolina Research Campus as CHS was named the exclusive health care provider of the research campus. These are just a few of the developments made at CMC-NorthEast made in the last year.
Expanding the systems
As Carolinas HealthCare System expanded into Cabarrus County, its main competitor, Novant Health, also made in-roads into the northeastern part of the Charlotte metro region. Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury joined Novant in January. And, together, Novant and Rowan Regional pushed to build Rowan Regional South, a 50-bed community hospital in Kannapolis. But CHS and CMC-NorthEast had other plans: a healthplex on Lane Street, CMC-Kannapolis, not far from Novant's proposed site. A marketing war ensued for public support for each proposed institution, but in the end, CMC-Kannapolis received the certificate of need from the state and Rowan Regional South did not.
While the certificate of need for Rowan Regional South is still under appeal, Novant has not stopped growing its market share in Cabarrus County and in the northeastern metro region. Through a partnership with HMA, a health system from Florida, Novant now has vested interests in hospitals in Mooresville and Lake Norman.
On Friday, Novant announced 45 physicians from HMA joined its physician network, bringing the total of physicians in Novant's network up to about 200 that joined this year.
Patrick Easterling, chief operating officer for Novant Medical Group, said the physician group could hit the 1,000 mark this year. Easterling also said the trend in health care is to get more specialities out to the patients where they live.
"It is more expensive to build around tertiary care centers because of the cost of real estate," Easterling said. "We want to be in the community and I expect that growth strategy to continue."
CMC-NorthEast, on the other hand, is being built into a proper tertiary care center, where patients can get just about every type of medical service, save transplants, they would need. When the merger was announced, the NorthEast Board of Directors and CHS agreed then to $650 million in capital investments in the hospital over the next five years and four seats on the CHS Board of Commissioners.
Nantz said about $100 million of that investment has been seen or been promised just in year one of the merger.
"To be that far along [with new projects at the hospital] speaks to people keeping their word," Nantz said. "It speaks to the quality of the medical community, but we haven't tapped all the opportunities from the merger."
Bumps in the road
CMC-NorthEast has never been shy about touting its successes and strengths. Last year, HealthGrades, a national healthcare assessment company, named CMC-NorthEast the top hospital in the state for cardiac care. Billboards proclaiming the new designation went up on Interstate 85.
But the hospital also took hits as well.
In Nov. 2007, the hospital voluntarily withdrew its Level-III trauma designation to reassess record-keeping and to get physicians in the NorthEast network to be more active in emergency medical training. Nantz said the state Emergency Medical Services office will come back for an assessment visit Aug. 27 and 28.
"The medical staff has been fantastic in working on this," Nantz said. "They said 'Let's make this work.'"
Nantz said he is confident the trauma status will be restored.
CMC-NorthEast also lost its Magnet status for nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in July 2007. At the time, hospital officials said the designation loss was not due to patient care, but lack of of nurse participation in evidence-based research and participation in professional organizations. Nantz said the nursing staff is still considering its options on applying again for Magnet status.
But CMC-NorthEast is poised to grow from here, Nantz said, and meet the needs of a new research industry in Cabarrus County. The hospital and Cabarrus Family Medicine is participating in Duke University's MURDOCK Study at the research campus.
"All the work we've done has improved care in the community," Nantz said. "We're off to a very good start with this commitment."
--Contact Ben McNeely: 704-789-9131
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Copyright (c) 2008, Independent Tribune, Concord, N.C.
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