Novant Health plans to invest more than $1 billion over the next five to seven years to expand heart and vascular services, build a new rehabilitation hospital and reconfigure portions of its Wilmington, North Carolina, campus.

The Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based system said its board of trustees approved construction tied to a long-term master facility plan for Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. The projects are intended to address sustained population growth in southeastern North Carolina and rising demand for cardiovascular and rehabilitation services.

Plans call for a new heart and vascular patient tower on the South 17th Street campus, along with an 80,000-square-foot medical office building to expand outpatient cardiac care. The existing heart and vascular facility on Physicians Drive is at capacity, according to the health system.
The tower will include inpatient beds, operating rooms for minimally invasive and complex procedures, cardiac catheterization labs and electrophysiology labs. Novant Health said it expects to recruit 75 additional physicians and advanced practice providers over the next decade to support projected growth. The system’s Heart & Vascular Institute reports 18,000 new patients annually in the Coastal Region, more than 120,000 outpatient visits and roughly 12,500 surgeries and procedures each year.

“This investment will fuel generational change to healthcare in this community,” said Ernie Bovio, president of the Novant Health Coastal Region.

The current rehabilitation hospital on the South 17th Street campus will be replaced by the new tower. A separate 60-bed rehabilitation hospital with private rooms will be constructed on the Wrightsville Avenue campus, which also houses Novant Health New Hanover Orthopedic Hospital.

In addition, two floors of the main medical center will be reconfigured to expand clinical areas, including endoscopy and surgical services.

“This landmark tower will fully integrate cardiac services, supporting interdisciplinary collaboration, continuous learning, patient safety and excellence in high acuity care,” said Dr. Bill Smith, an electrophysiologist and chief physician executive of the Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute in the Coastal Region.

The health system said the heart and vascular tower is expected to open by 2031, pending state certificate-of-need review.

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