Hospital enters into deal with UNC
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 13, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne Memorial Hospital has not been sold, officials with the hospital and the University of North Carolina Health Care System said Tuesday.
"UNC Health Care's management agreement with Wayne Memorial is not a purchase," said Chris Ellington, president of the UNC Health Care Network Hospitals and executive vice president and chief financial officer of UNC Hospitals at Chapel Hill.
The president of Wayne Memorial will be a UNC Health Care employee, Ellington said.
All other hospital employees will keep their current jobs and will remain employees of Wayne Memorial Hospital, a private, not-for-profit hospital, not the state.
Hospital officials said some of the primary benefits of the agreement signed on Dec. 30 include:
• Expansion of locally available hospital and community based patient care services to enhance patient care.
• Improved patient experience and satisfaction.
• Enhanced operational efficiency.
• Recruitment of additional highly trained and skilled physicians.
• Access to cutting-edge research and treatments at UNC Health Care.
Ellington and interim hospital president Bob Enders attended Tuesday morning's annual board meetings of Wayne Health Corp., the hospital's parent company and the hospital.
"It is great for us to be here," Ellington said. "I know Bob (Enders) is excited. If you guys come up with issues, you are tied into the community and you are tied into the staff here, you can simply direct those back to Bob or I.
"You have great financials so there aren't any emergencies that I see at the moment. It's now a matter of us really educating as quick as we can so that we can bring the benefits that our system has. Then we are going to steal the stuff that you guys do better than us and we are going to put those back in place where we are."
There is a 30-day "out" period in the contract that would allow UNC Health Care to back out of the agreement after it does its due diligence, Ellington said.
However, Ellington said he does not foresee any problems that would keep UNC Health Care from backing out of the arrangement.
Enders also is the president of Chatham Hospital in Siler City, part of the UNC Health Care Network Hospitals. He will continue working at Chatham Hospital in a limited role.
Prior to serving as Chatham Hospital president, Enders previously served as administrator of Pioneer Health Services of Patrick County in Stuart, Va., from 2009 to 2011.
He also served as president/CEO of Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden from 1987-2008.
Enders is a graduate of the University of Virginia and has a master's in health care administration from the Medical College of Virginia.
He was appointed by Carolina Health Care to take over the office that had been held by Bill Paugh, who retired at the end of December after 15 years the hospital's president and CEO.
A formal search is under way for a full-time president.
The hospital signed the agreement with UNC Health Care, the state-owned not-for-profit integrated health care system based in Chapel Hill, on Dec. 30.
"The new partnership between Wayne Memorial and UNC Health Care is a management agreement that will bring the resources and expertise of UNC Health Care to supplement the excellent community-based care currently provided at Wayne Memorial," Ellington said. "The agreement will provide support to the Wayne board, medical staff, executives, and staff to enhance their sole mission of providing quality care to the community.
"Some components of the management agreement include assistance that will continue to improve clinical quality and patient outcomes of care through sharing UNC Health Care's experience and research. UNC Health Care will work closely with the physician leaders and the community to bring new clinicians to the area and with Wayne Memorial leadership to reduce the overall cost of care and improve service."
Wayne Memorial will enjoy access to the expertise of a large academic health care system during a time of extraordinary change, Ellington said.
However, hospital officials continue to search for ways to reassure the community that the hospital will not be sold as part the agreement.
"Let me say again it is a managed services agreement," hospital board Chairman Jim Parker said. "It is a joint hiring of the chief executive officer. That is the only employee that is hired by UNC. The other employees remain on our staff. We are not selling the hospital. This is not Johnston County where there is an equity interest (in the hospital).
"They are bringing help, and we are going to help them by getting bigger. They are going to help us by doing better and improving."
The agreement does not involve any sale or exchange of assets, and will allow the hospital board to maintain local governance of the hospital, he said.
Parker said that despite "good efforts" by the News-Argus to explain that the hospital is not being sold, he and Ms. Weaver continue to hear from people who think it has been sold.
"I do think that we need to do more homework as far as the community is concerned and what we have done with Chapel Hill versus not selling out to Chapel Hill," board member Charlotte Weaver said. "People just aren't getting it."
"I can't say it enough that we have not sold the hospital -- it doesn't seem to matter," Parker said. "Maybe there is a way to put on Facebook we didn't sell the hospital."
He also suggested getting on the speaking circuit and talk to civic clubs and other groups.
The agreement with UNC Health Care is the outgrowth of an exploratory committee appointed to find a new CEO following Paugh's announcement last April that he would retire at the end of 2015.
The committee was eventually split into two committees to weigh all of the options, including entering a management services agreement.
In September, the hospital board announced that it would send out a request for proposals to several larger hospital systems to gauge interest in forming a partnership.
The hospital board has held all of the negotiations behind closed doors, citing their competitive nature.
The board last month authorized its executive committee to sign the management services agreement with UNC Health Care.
For more information about UNC Health Care visit www.unchealthcare.org.