Cone Health is facing competition from larger Triad and Triangle healthcare systems in its bid to open a 46bed community hospital in Mebane and maintain its market share hold on Alamance County.
Duke Health and Novant Health Inc. also have identified Mebane for a 46bed community hospital, representing the potential first fruits of an expansion collaboration whose seeds were planted in March.
The systems are challenging Cone in a key gateway market where the Triad and Triangle meet.
With Cone already owning and operating a 238-bed Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, Duke-Novant said in its application that their Mebane hospital is "designed to meet the rising demand for acute care services, expand access to quality healthcare, and foster healthy competition within Alamance County, ultimately benefiting the entire community."
People are also reading…
Cone's certificate-of-need application requests approval to open a $275-million community hospital at 103 Medical Park Drive in Mebane. The property is adjacent to Cone's MedCenter facility in Mebane.
The proposed Duke Novant Mebane Hospital would represent a $225 million capital investment for a facility to be located at a site off Gregory Poole Lane that could be between the Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and N.C. 119 exits off Interstate 40. Duke University Health System owns the property.
The joint venture is identified as Alamance Health Co. LLC, with Duke and Novant having an equal ownership stake. Dean Swindle, president of Novant Health Enterprises, is serving as its chief strategy officer.
It represents Novant's first entrance into Alamance County, while expanding significantly on Duke's presence beyond the Kernodle clinics in Burlington and Mebane.
Both Cone and Duke-Novant project its Mebane hospital opening in 2029, but that's optimistic given a likely series of appeals from the system not approved for the certificate.
Cone also is pledging to create: 15 emergency department bays; three general operating rooms; a C-section operating room; two procedure rooms; three obstetric labor, delivery, recovery beds; seven observation beds; and imaging, ancillary and support services.
"Many residents of eastern Alamance County already trust Cone Health for their health care," Cone said in a news release.
"The 161,578-square-foot facility would bring care close to home, helping residents avoid the 10-mile trip west on I-40/85 to Alamance Regional Medical Center or east along that same busy interstate to hospitals further away."
Cone also said its Mebane hospital would meet the need to "mitigate capacity constraints on the ARMC campus."
"By expanding hospital-based services at the existing Mebane campus to include acute care, emergency, and inpatient surgical services, Cone Health will better serve this rapidly growing community," the company said.
Meanwhile, Novant said in a statement its proposed Mebane hospital "would expand access to specialty services and clinical expertise in the region, and is the latest example of Novant Health's commitment to transform ing the health and wellness of communities throughout the Carolinas."
Duke Health said in a statement the Mebane hospital "would expand access to acute care services and clinical expertise in the region, including emergency department services, inpatient services and labor and delivery care," and that it "will build upon Duke Health's decade of multi-specialty care in the community at Kernodle Clinic."
Cone and the Duke-Novant joint venture are acting upon a need for 46 a cute care hospital beds in Alamance identified in the 2025 State Medical Facilities Plan that determines the annual growth needs for hospitals and healthcare equipment in all 100 counties.
By regulating access to healthcare facilities and equipment in a region, the state's certificate-of-need laws are designed to control costs, enhance quality and ensure equitable access to care. Among the responsibilities of certificate-of-need laws is setting the number of hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers in a region.
Duke-Novant collaboration
At the center of the Duke-Novant initiative unveiled on March 3 is expanding their presences statewide through developing new campuses.
When Duke and Novant introduced their joint venture on March 3, the systems projected construction on the first sites to begin this summer and fall, with each site to open 18 months after the start of construction.
Duke and Novant have provided limited information about their collaboration other than to say clinicians from both systems will be available in new locations, increasing access to both primary care and advanced specialty treatments. Carl Armato, president and chief executive of Novant, said in a March statement that the systems "have a shared vision for what healthcare can look like."
"Our collaboration means the communities we serve together will benefit from our combined focus on quality, innovation and excellence in patient care and experience," Armato said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Craig Albanese, chief executive of Duke University Health System, said, "We're taking bold steps to bring the excellence and innovation of Duke Health to more patients, in more ways, across more communities. We're energized by the possibilities of what we can accomplish in collaboration with Novant Health for communities across our region."
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said "if the planned construction is for a physician office building to 'improve access to care, enhanced specialty services, and telehealth and virtual care options,' a certificate of need is not required unless it will include a new institutional health service as defined in the CON law."
"More locations mean shorter wait times and more appointment availability," the systems said. "The collaboration will also explore ways to empower patients with more opportunities to connect with specialists virtually."
The systems said the collaboration represents their efforts at "developing novel partnerships to improve health outcomes for more communities across the region, and provide an exceptional patient experience for all."
Cone feeling the pinch
The healthcare competition for Greensboro residents, particularly in the affluent northwest section, appears to be heating up with Novant's $16.5 million purchase in December of a combined 53 acres near Interstate 840 and U.S. 220.
The undeveloped properties, according to a Guilford County Register of Deeds filing, are a 29.38-acre tract at 4319 Four Farms Road and an adjacent 24.04-acre tract at 4315 Willow Rock Lane.
The two Novant-acquired properties are located between Cone Health's Med Center campus at 3518 Drawbridge Parkway and the planned $426 million Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist campus at 2909 Horse Pen Creek Road.
Novant said in a statement it "continually analyzes and seeks opportunities to ensure we can meet the future health care needs of the communities we serve. This includes investing in property, such as this purchase in Guilford County.
"At this time, we do not have detailed plans to share about the use of the land, but will update the community as details develop."
The 2025 State Medical Facilities Plan does not currently indicate a need for new acute-care hospital beds in Guilford through 2027.
"It looks like Novant is going to be asking for a competing hospital in anticipation of future patient growth along the beltway," said Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University.
"By grabbing the land now, they future-proof themselves from when the need arises, at a lower overall cost."
Novant's primary presence in the Greensboro healthcare market is a multispecialty facility at 3515 W. Market St., as well as clinics at 1622 Highwoods Blvd. and 1941 New Garden Road.
The first construction phase for the Baptist medical campus launched Oct. 28 involving $163 million outpatient surgery center, multispecialty medical office building and cancer center. The 134,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2026.
Meanwhile, Baptist has set a projected Jan. 1, 2029, debut for the $262.8 million, 36-bed Greensboro Medical Center on the campus. The hospital will feature 12 observation beds, 20 emergency department bays, two operating rooms, two procedure rooms, two CT scanners, one fixed MRI scanner and other radiology and imaging equipment.
"Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist continues to serve thousands of patients in Greensboro, and we are committed to growing in Guilford County and offering more convenient and high-quality health care choices for our community, close to home," said Dr. David Zaas, Baptist's president.
Baptist received in August final certificate-of-need approval from state health regulators for the hospital — nearly 1½ years after its controversial proposal by the system.
Atrium, Baptist and Cone engaged in public displays of disagreements with each other's claims, including at a N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation public hearing on the proposal.
Cone stated its opposition in full-page ads in the News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal. It asked state health regulators to deny Baptist's application.
"Overlapping services and facilities concentrated in certain pockets of our communities only amplify already pronounced health care disparities," Cone said in the ad. "Let's not confuse entering a market with 'investing in a community.' "
[email protected] 336-727-7376 @rcraverWSJ
