Novant Health has received approval for a new “outpatient-focused” hospital in Greenville, S.C.
Here are five things to know:
1. The 20-bed facility will be developed in partnership with local physicians and reflects the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based system’s strategic shift toward ambulatory care.
2. Over the last year, Novant Health has made significant inroads in South Carolina. The system has added three hospitals and 27 physician practices, and is planning a new full-service community hospital in Bluffton.
3. Executives told Becker’s Novant Health’s broader strategy is focused on redefining the hospital’s role within the healthcare ecosystem.
“Hospitals are large, complex and expensive,” Dean Swindle, executive vice president, chief strategy officer and president of Novant Health Enterprises, said. “We need to redefine how they fit into the ecosystem. For example, we have a neurology group with higher-acuity cases that ideally should be in an ambulatory hospital. But because our hospital is at 90% capacity and our ASC is only at 50%, we’re shifting cases to lower-cost settings to free up hospital capacity for more critical patients.”
4. As part of this strategy, Novant Health has also secured new payer contracts with Blue Cross of North Carolina and Blue Cross of South Carolina. These agreements are designed to facilitate the migration of outpatient surgeries, imaging and pharmacy services to non-hospital sites.
5. In April, Novant Health broke ground on a medical office building that will offer primary care, cardiology, gastroenterology and a multi-specialty ASC.
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