Pender Medical Center announces $50 million agreement with Novant Health

PENDER COUNTY (WWAY) — A multimillion-dollar deal over the course of 10 years has Novant Health taking eventual ownership of Pender Medical Center.

Novant Health and Pender Medical Center have agreed on a $50 million agreement, which will lead to improvements at the hospital and across Pender County.

“This was a very important decision and this partnership; I feel very confident that we share the same vision with Novant for what the future medical care of Pender County will look like. We’re excited to have the opportunity to have expanded services for our citizens,” said Jackie Newton, Pender County Chair.

The agreement, which will conclude in a transaction that will make Novant Health the owner of Pender Medical Center, looks to make several improvements. The $50 million investment is part of a transaction that will make Novant Health the owner of Pender Medical Center.

The County and Novant Health will finalize legal documents in September and the transaction should be closed within the next six months.

“Probably will do a lot of assessments around that, but expansions here for the acute care presence, maybe a larger emergency department at some point. Then also ambulatory access, so it might be a medical office building down the road, there’s just a lot of assessments that we still need to do,” said Shelbourn Stevens, President of New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

When asked why Novant was chosen as the partner for Pender Medical Center, Commissioner Jackie Newton says it was a simple decision.

“We wanted to make the transition as easy as possible because when you know what you want, you know who can give it to you.”