Expanding access to medical specialties

Laurie Whalin, COO of Novant Health NHRMC, at its neuroscience center (Photo courtesy of Novant Health NHRMC)

The demand for specialized medical care is increasing in the greater Wilmington area, especially among older individuals.

American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that as of 2020, 37% of New Hanover County residents were at least 50 years old. In Brunswick County, a magnet for retirees, 54% were 50 or older.

Novant Health-New Hanover Regional Medical Center currently offers 14 categories of specialty care in its Coastal market, and big changes are on the way to better meet the needs of a growing population, especially among those in need of specialized services, said Laurie Whalin, NHRMC’s chief operating officer and head of oncology and neurology services in the region.

Significant need exists for cardiology services, Whalin said. 

“We continue to recruit several providers every year, and we are also getting more and more specialized providers,” she said.

Another need is in neurology subspecialties. 

“Multiple sclerosis is, unfortunately, a huge growing need in our region, as well as things like Parkinson’s and dementia, so those are a couple of growing specialties that we are currently recruiting for,” she said.

Already, Whalin said, plans for increased access to certain specialties are becoming a reality, in a burst of activity that will run through 2024.

Brunswick County

In February, Novant Health began moving existing services at its Shallotte office to a new facility there. Services include neurology, psychiatry, endocrinology, rehabilitation and family medicine.

“Outpatient psychiatry is one of the biggest needs we have in our region” and Novant is recruiting for an outpatient psychiatrist to be housed in the new building, Whalin said. 

In addition, ground was broken for a second office on the campus of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center. It will expand access to heart and vascular care, urology and other services. The new office is expected to open in early 2023.

New Hanover County

At the New Hanover-Pender County line, site work is starting this year for Novant Health Scotts Hill Medical Center, a 66-bed facility opening in 2024. The focus of the hospital will be orthopedics – with 36 beds moving from NHRMC’s orthopedic hospital on Wrightsville Avenue, 30 new beds and eight operating rooms – and with a satellite cancer center housed in a new office building. 

“And what we’re really excited about is we are going to have both medical oncology services and radiation oncology services,” said Whalin, who will also be president of the new medical center. “Right now in the region, we don’t have any of those in the same location, so patients have to go to one location to get their medical oncology and another for their radiation oncology. This will bring those both in the same facility to start being able to reach those patients in that northern corridor.”

Two new medical oncologists will be hired, and cardiac imaging will also be available, Whalin said. 

Midtown Wilmington

Competing with Scotts Hill for attention is another heralded project, a 108-bed neurosciences tower slated to open this September at NHRMC’s 17th Street campus. 

The facility will serve patients from a seven-county area and house an inpatient neuromedical unit, inpatient neurosurgical unit, stroke unit and neurocritical care. 

“We’ll have four dedicated neuro operating rooms, so all spine procedures and any craniotomies or sort of intense neurosurgical procedures will be done in those four dedicated ORs,” Whalin said. Two interventional suites will treat strokes and aneurysms.

“We are a comprehensive stroke center at Novant Health-NHRMC, and so this is really just expanding our access to that, so patients should not be having to travel anywhere out of the vicinity,” Whalin noted.

Rounding out Novant Health’s makeover of area services are two clinics in underserved neighborhoods being established with a $10 million donation from basketball great and former Wilmington resident, Michael Jordan. One will be built on South 15th Street and is slated to open in 2023. The location of the second clinic is planned for Princess Place and 30th Street.