CaroMont opens ‘game changer’ Belmont hospital
(Business North Carolina, Kevin Ellis) — At 8 a.m. today, CaroMont Health opened its $260 million, 54-bed hospital in Belmont, about 10 miles west of Charlotte. A surgical procedure is already planned, and labor induction may bring about the hospital’s first baby. A county ambulance was parked on stand-by Tuesday just outside the 16-room emergency department.
“We think Day 1 will be busy,” says Richard Blackburn, vice president of operations for CaroMont Regional Medical Center – Belmont.
The four-story hospital – visible from Interstate 85 and located off the first southbound exit after crossing the Mecklenburg County line – is the centerpiece of a pledge CaroMont Health made in May 2019 to invest more than $400 million in construction and expansion projects in Gaston County. CaroMont has surpassed the $400 million figure by several million.
The hospital expects to serve about 30,000 patients a year, mostly from Gaston County, but also from neighboring Mecklenburg, Lincoln County and York County, South Carolina. The hospital will employ about 350 workers, 85% of them already hired, Blackburn says while giving a tour of the hospital Tuesday.
The 240,000-square-foot facility is located on 28 acres adjacent to Belmont Abbey College, which was founded in 1876 by Benedictine monks. The Benedictine monks affiliated with the state’s only Roman Catholic college, which has about 1,700 students, leased the land to CaroMont Health to build the hospital campus. The campus also includes a 100,000-square-foot medical office building that opened in September and a four-story parking deck. CaroMont’s total investment on the campus is about $315 million.
CaroMont Health CEO Chris Peek, who moved to Gastonia at age 10, arrived at the healthcare system in 2017. Two years later, CaroMont proposed building a second hospital in fast-growing eastern Gaston County. Peek, a Gaston College and UNC Charlotte graduate, had been Mecklenburg’s deputy county manager.
“This is not only historic with regards to the biggest capital investment for CaroMont Health, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the biggest single capital investment by any single company in the history of Gaston County,” Peek said in 2019.
Belmont Abbey College President Bill Thierfelder echoed Peek then, calling it a “game changer” for the college he has helped lead since 2004. As part of the 2019 land agreement between CaroMont and the monks, Belmont Abbey would start a nursing program. A pathway through a stand of pine trees connects the college to the hospital campus. Belmont Abbey nursing students will train at the hospital, and CaroMont leaders hope that results in a pipeline for skilled nurses.
CaroMont Health, a nonprofit healthcare system, was established in 1946 as a tribute to soldiers killed in World War II and was originally called Gaston Memorial. It opened its current, main campus hospital in Gastonia on Dec. 26, 1973. It adopted the CaroMont Health in 2000. After several expansions, the main hospital has 476 beds.
Despite its proximity to major healthcare systems with histories of acquisitions – namely Charlotte-based Atrium Health and Novant Health of Winston-Salem – CaroMont has remained fiercely independent.
CaroMont’s status as the only healthcare system in Gaston County with a hospital and surgical department worked in its favor when the N.C. State Medical Facilities Plan revealed that the county could use an additional 33 in-patient hospital beds.
That put CaroMont in the position as the only healthcare system that could feasibly build a second hospital in Gaston County under the state’s Certificate of Need system, which requires state approval for healthcare providers to provide new services or build new facilities, among other rules. CaroMont’s original plan was to slightly reduce the number of beds at its Gastonia hospital to make the Belmont hospital more economical.
However, in the five years since CaroMont announced plans for the Belmont hospital, the N.C. State Medical Facilities Plan has increased Gaston County’s need for additional in-patient hospital beds from 33 to 97 and now 145 beds. CaroMont has left the fourth floor of its Belmont hospital vacant in anticipation of adding 24 beds later, increasing the size of both hospitals combined from 530 beds to up to 554 beds.
When CaroMont completed a $130 million tower at its Gastonia hospital in May 2023, it also left one floor vacant for future expansion. The tower was part of the $400 million expansion announced in 2019.
Visitors to the new hospital will find a full complement of imaging and diagnostic services, labor and delivery units and a surgical suite with two operating rooms. They might be surprised by the size of the rooms – between 250 and 260 square feet – more than double the size of rooms in the “original tower” at the Gastonia hospital, which are about 110 square feet. Newer rooms at the main hospital are larger.
Those old rooms are more than 50 years old now, and regulations have changed, says Blackburn. Despite being so close to the rush of traffic on Interstate 85, the rooms are also quiet. Blackburn credits “sound engineers” with the hospital’s construction team.
Birmingham, Alabama-based Robins & Morton was the general contractor on the construction; Spartanburg, South Carolina-based McMillan Pazdan Smith Architects was the designer. Other companies involved included Bridgewater for construction management, Charlotte-based Flagship Healthcare Properties for construction management, Laurene, Rickher & Sorrell for structural engineering, ColeJenest & Stone for civil engineering and Reece, Noland & McElrath for mechanical engineering.
In a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, Peek told about 300 community leaders that the “support for this has been unprecedented.” He thanked CaroMont workers, Belmont Abbey and the monks. He also thanked the community for its support.
“The success of CaroMont Health going forward will be all about this community continuing to rally behind our promise to ‘care first,’” says Peek.
