BELMONT — A hospital is planned east of the campus of Belmont Abbey College, thanks to a new partnership with CaroMont Health Inc. that will complement new healthcare degree programs at the college.
Abbey and CaroMont officials officially signed a lease agreement Sept. 1 for the construction of a hospital on the abbey’s property, to be named CaroMont Regional Medical Center-Belmont. The Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey unanimously approved the lease earlier in August.
The cooperative venture will provide substantial benefits to the Abbey, the college, CaroMont Health and the Gaston County community, officials said in a statement.
“I am grateful to Chris Peek, president and CEO of CaroMont Health, and to Dr. Bill Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College, for initiating the discussions that led to this significant day in the abbey’s history,” Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari said in a statement. “Special recognition goes to Richard Hoefling (’71), Bill Monroe, and Michael Warstler (’86), without whose expertise and dedicated service on behalf of the abbey, the lease would not have been realized. I am grateful as well to all in the college community who worked so diligently on the SOAR initiative, which this lease will help to bring to fruition.”
The SOAR initiative has involved creating new majors at Belmont Abbey College, including degree programs in Nursing and Health Information Management & Analytics, which began welcoming students this fall. Other new majors such as Marketing and Supply Chain Management were also part of this concerted effort.
The Nursing major program is pending approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the North Carolina Board of Nursing, and other regulatory agencies.
Students pursuing these healthcare majors are expected to have practicals at the new hospital and use classrooms located on the hospital’s campus. They will also be able to look to the hospital for possible employment opportunities after they graduate.
“We are at a new beginning for Belmont Abbey College as our healthcare degrees take shape,” Thierfelder said of the new programs. “I am overjoyed at the prospect of the impact our students will make on our community and the world. The health informatics major at the abbey integrates health, technology, data, science, and our uniquely Catholic and Benedictine charism.
“With this program our college will bring a much needed moral and charitable ethos the world so desperately needs.”
Services are still being planned for CaroMont Regional Medical Center-Belmont, but abbey officials said the hospital will serve the community and offer an emergency department, inpatient units for patients requiring admission or observation, operating rooms and surgical capabilities, a labor and delivery unit, and a full suite of imaging services – including MRI and CT scans, nuclear medicine and ultrasound.
Officials said the hospital, located east of the college’s main campus off I-85, could open as early as mid-2023. State officials must first approve CaroMont’s certificate of need.
Medical office buildings for outpatient services and physician offices are also planned for the hospital campus.
Belmont Abbey College, founded in 1876, is the only Catholic college between northern Virginia and Florida.
The new health care majors bring the total academic degree programs offered by the college to 25.
Enrollment this fall is approximately 1,400 students.
— Catholic News Herald
Pictured: CaroMont Health’s Richard Blackburn, vice president of Diagnostic and Support Services, Board Chairman David Payseur Jr. and President/CEO Chris Peek are pictured with Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey and Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College, after signing their agreement Sept. 1 at Belmont Abbey College. (Photo provided by CaroMont Health)