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New Hanover Regional Medical Center's plan to expand into the fast-growing Scotts Hill and Porters Neck areas with a new hospital has hit a big regulatory bump.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has denied New Hanover's certificate of need application for the project. According to the department's website, the state requires healthcare providers to obtain permission from the agency before developing or offering a "new institutional health service."
The certificate of need application was filed in September after New Hanover's Board of Trustees approved spending $210 million to build the Scotts Hill Community Hospital.
"It raises a number of questions," said Harper Peterson, a former state senator and former mayor of Wilmington who has been critical of the county selling New Hanover Regional, of the state's decision.

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