New Hanover County Commissioners respond to Novant ER controversy after sale of hospital
NEW HANOVER COUNTY (WWAY) — After claims from multiple healthcare workers and patients within Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center alleging short staffing, emergency room overcrowding, and ER wait times ranging from 6-12 hours, New Hanover County Commissioners are responding.
Current commissioners Julia Olson Boseman and Jonathan Barfield were to of the four who voted to sell NHRMC to Novant back in 2020.
“I think the decision was right,” Barfield said, “and I’m hoping that the folks at Novant from an administrative standpoint will get this right, so as to get the right amount of individuals working at the hospital to make sure that we don’t have those tremendously long wait times.”
Current commissioner Rob Zapple was the only vote against the sale.
“We need that hospital to succeed,” he said. “So come on Novant!”
According to Zapple, Novant made commitments to the County as a part of the purchase to not only continue the same level of healthcare, but to expand healthcare in the region.
“My wishes and my plea to Novant is let’s make sure we go back and revisit that. We need Novant to be successful.”
Barfield says his heart goes out to the hospital workers, and that short staffing is a problem everywhere these days.
“Looking at restaurants they’re short staffed, and owners that are going into the kitchen to cook because they can’t find cooks. And other industries as well are trying to find staff,” he said. “I think it’s a hard problem across the country.”
Zapple says the County has heard of these issues within Novant, and while they no longer own the hospital, they’re going to do whatever they can to encourage change.
“I know they’ve gone through some challenges, management-wise, etc. Certainly the nursing shortages, some of it. Also, the emergency room waits are unacceptable. And I believe they are unacceptable to Novant as well. We need them to fix it.”
Julia Olson Boseman declined and interview but did issue a statement on her decision, saying in a text:
“Absolutely the right decision. There have been long ER wait times for years. If the County still owned the hospital, you would be seeing a property tax increase and we wouldn’t have Port City United or any of the violence prevention initiatives. And we wouldn’t be developing a mental health and substance use disorder strategy for NHC. The $50 mill came from the hospital sale.”
