Entering the South Carolina market is something that Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health was looking into, even when senior vice president Jason Bernd joined the health system almost 20 years ago.
That move came to fruition in February, when the system acquired three South Carolina hospitals — along with their affiliated physician clinics — from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare in a $2.4 billion deal.
"We wanted to be in these markets for a long time, and I think that with this acquisition, it was an opportunity we had to take, Mr. Bernd told Becker's. "And even though we really do want to focus on more of an ambulatory strategy, we started with the acquisition of three hospitals because it really helps us establish our footprint and get our resources focused and going."
Mr. Bernd, who was named the president of Novant's South Carolina region in February, said the system's vision for the state is to "have a more asset-light, ambulatory-focused strategy, where we can get care at the right cost, at the right location, convenient for patients in these communities."
The three hospitals Novant acquired from Tenet were Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based East Cooper Medical Center, Hilton Head (S.C.) Medical Center and Hardeeville, S.C.-based Coastal Carolina Hospital.
"I think there is a level of credibility when you do have hospitals in those markets that helps us as we're establishing our presence, and as we're building strategies for an outpatient world with surgery centers, ambulatory infusion with urgent care," he said.
Mr. Bernd said the local leadership at the hospitals they acquired have fantastic ideas to grow and further service the community.
"We're really just focusing on unleashing those ideas right now," he said. "An example would be continued growth of our surgical program at Coastal Carolina Hospital with the purchase of an aquablation therapy that really helps with prostate surgery. In addition, we'll be opening up an interventional radiology lab at East Cooper Medical Center by the end of the year, as well as providing upgraded diagnostic scanning [at the medical center]."
They'll also be making facility upgrades at Hilton Head Medical Center and purchasing new monitoring equipment for all three hospitals, he said.
Novant also plans to build a new full-service community hospital campus in Bluffton, S.C., which Mr. Bernd said is one of the fastest-growing cities in South Carolina. The Novant Health Bluffton Medical Center will be built with 50 beds to start, with plans to expand to 100 beds as the needs of the community increase in the years to come. Novant is also planning several outpatient campuses in Bluffton, including a freestanding emergency department, surgery centers, imaging services, urgent care, primary care and specialty care.
Novant is expecting to close its acquisition of a 200-provider urgent care group from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina on Nov. 1, and is invested in ambulatory service centers in the Charleston, S.C., market.
"We continue to see opportunities like that, both developing ambulatory surgery centers as well as finding other partners to work with that have existing centers," he said.
Mr. Bernd said the health system sees advantages in "diversifying the geographies that we work in."
"Each of the states have their own strengths and challenges with regard to working in those environments," he said. "And, certainly, South Carolina has some positive tailwinds that make it an attractive state for us to operate in. One, it's adjacent to North Carolina, where we already have resources, so we can use some of our company scale to provide lower-cost supplies."
Population growth is another positive and is similar to what the system is seeing in its home state in Charlotte and Wilmington, he said.
"The last thing is deregulation of certificate of need in both North Carolina and South Carolina," he said. "South Carolina goes further where they have a total repeal by Jan. 1, 2027."