We are very excited to announce our new strategic partnership with Novant Health. This is a pivotal step for our organization as we continue to grow and advance in a crowded and rapidly expanding healthcare landscape. Together, we’ve formed one of the most comprehensive, mission-driven, locally-based healthcare collaborations in the Carolinas.
We remain an independent, nonprofit health system with local governance and leadership, with Novant Health holding a minority interest of 30%.
For the last several years, under the guidance of our Board of Trustees, we have evaluated several strategic partnership opportunities. The heart of this work has always been looking for ways to elevate our ability to meet our mission. Our affiliation in Heart and Cancer with Duke Health is a great example.
Through that strategic relationship, we’ve grown our ability to deliver life-saving care in our cardiac catheterization lab and built the CMC Cancer Center from the ground up into a team that is saving hundreds of lives every year.
We started our journey as an organization 95 years ago. For generations we’ve grown hand in hand with our community.
In just the last 5 years we’ve added oncology, rheumatology, dermatology, infectious diseases, orthopaedics, pain management, robotic surgery, a new state-of-the-art surgical center, a family medicine residency program, sports medicine fellowship program, and 17 new locations. As the population of our home began to surge, so did we.
Today, we begin to write a new chapter in our story. One that will continue to build on our historic traditions.
Just like CMC, Novant Health is an award-winning organization dedicated to improving the health of its communities. Just like CMC, Novant Health is a not-for-profit health system driven to provide the best care for all their patients. We share a mission and values that make our organizations kindred spirits. Just like CMC, Novant Health has a documented history of striving to create health equity.
Novant Health is investing in our strategic vision for the future of healthcare in our region. They will work with us to ensure the future of our families, friends, and neighbors.
During the first year of this strategic partnership, we will focus on developing initiatives for key areas of need for the patients of Horry and Georgetown County. Together, we will explore:
- Expanding access to care for patients across the Grand Strand and Pee Dee and exploring further regional growth together to provide services close to home.
- Creating new opportunities for patient-focused care experiences, which includes moving care from clinical settings to more consumer-friendly environments.
- Developing a robust pipeline of clinical talent and providing new opportunities to train the next generation of clinical and administrative healthcare leaders.
Undoubtedly, you have many questions. We want to answer every one of them. Below you will find a list of questions covering the breadth of this partnership in detail. If you have a question you don’t see here, please let us know by visiting the CMC Intranet. On the CMC Intranet, we’ve created a form for you to submit your questions, and we’ll answer as many as we can.
We know you’ll have questions and maybe this will help.
What does this mean for me as an employee?
Your day-to-day life as a member of our CMC team does not change. Novant Health is a minority partner in our organization.
What does this mean for CMC?
Over the last five years, we have grown tremendously to meet our community’s medical needs. This partnership with Novant Health will help us take our mission even further as we seek more ways to positively impact the health of our patients and the communities we serve throughout the region.
For the first year, we will form a strategic partnership committee to explore the best ways to positively impact our community. It’s important to both of our organizations that we execute the right ideas at the right times in ways that help us meet our mission to deliver the best possible healthcare.
How does this partnership align with our Four Pillars?
Everything we are focused on here at CMC is around our Four Pillars: patient satisfaction, employee satisfaction, quality, and financial sustainability. Any efforts that come out of this partnership must be designed to meet one of those goals. Whether it’s innovative new models of care delivery or best practices for safety measures or taking advantage of economies of scale to bring down costs, whatever initiatives we execute together will meet these areas of priority.
Why Novant?
For the last several years, we’ve held discussions with potential partners. In Novant Health, we found a partner who shared our strategic vision for our community. Novant Health is a large organization and they have been exploring ways to impact healthcare across the coastal region from Wilmington to Georgetown. Our organizations align on our strategic goals for the people of Horry County. Novant Health brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, and capabilities that we can start utilizing to meet the needs of our community.
Why now?
As many of you know, we live in one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States. We have a responsibility to our patients and community to continue growing with them like we’ve done for 95 years. For CMC, we did not want, and did not need, to rush into any new partnership. Both of our organizations are in financially solid and strong positions. Our focus on financial sustainability allowed us the room to focus on one thing: finding the right partner to help us meet our patient’s needs. In Novant Health, we found the right partner to help us do just that.
How much of a stake does Novant Health own?
Novant Health now holds a 30% minority stake in Conway Medical Center.
Novant Health is from outside Horry County. How will this impact our local governance?
The CMC Board of Trustees will expand to include 21 members, six of whom will represent Novant Health. The CMC Chief Executive Officer will continue to hold an Ex Officio position on the Board and will be a voting member. The other 14 board members will continue to be local community leaders from Horry County. Our Chief Executive Officer, Brian Argo, will become a member of the Novant Health Coastal Market Board of Trustees, working with leaders from across the Coastal Carolina region to develop and implement strategies to bring high-quality care to patients from Wilmington to Georgetown.
What does this mean for our patients and the services we provide?
Our patients can expect to continue receiving the same care from the same providers they’ve grown accustomed to. Throughout the first year, we’ll work together to identify the best ways to meet our patient’s needs and provide them with even more options, capabilities, and services. This will ultimately be a big win for our patients and our communities as our focus will be to enhance the experience they are already having with CMC.