After a two-year search, Surry County's 111-year-old hospital joined Winston-Salem-based Novant Health on Nov. 2, with more than $200 million promised over the next decade.
Mount Airy's hospital started the week under a new name. On Monday, Nov. 2, Northern Regional Hospital and its roughly 1,000 employees officially became part of Winston-Salem-based Novant Health, and the 133-bed hospital is now called Novant Health Northern Regional Medical Center, Becker's Hospital Review reported from a Nov. 2 announcement. The Triad Business Journal also covered the deal on Monday.
The handoff ends a search that began in March 2025 and caps two years in which both of Surry County's community hospitals joined larger systems. For Novant, it is the second rural hospital it has taken over in northwest North Carolina in five months.
The hospital's roots go back to 1915, when Dr. Moir S. Martin opened Martin Memorial Hospital in Mount Airy, according to a profile by the Surry County Economic Development Partnership. In 1953, the same year the original building burned, county voters approved a referendum that created Northern Hospital. It later became Northern Regional Hospital, and it is owned by a public body, the Northern Hospital District of Surry County, which the county commissioners govern.
Today the hospital offers emergency care, imaging, lab work, cardiology, maternity, orthopedics, surgery and skilled nursing, according to Becker's. The economic development partnership lists it among the county's major employers, with more than 1,000 caregivers.
Rural hospitals across the state have been under financial strain, and Northern Regional was no exception. When the commissioners voted 5–0 in October 2025 to go with Novant, Northern Regional board member Dr. David Shockley, who is also president of Surry Community College, said the pandemic had sped up the hospital's money troubles. "Without this, the hospital simply cannot make it into the future," he said, as The Mount Airy News reported.
Board chair Mark Marion called the vote the most "monumental and consequential decision" for county residents in a generation. He also told the audience that about 30 years ago North Carolina had more than 110 rural hospitals and that fewer than 10 are left today.
More than two dozen organizations showed interest in a partnership, including Duke University Health System and UNC Health, The Mount Airy News reported. The county's other hospital, Hugh Chatham Health in Elkin, had already joined Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in July 2025 in a deal that came with a $100 million commitment to that area.
Not everyone was sold at first. At the October 2025 hearing, residents asked whether the six-page public proposal had enough detail and whether specialty care would stay local. Former Mount Airy City Commissioner Shirley Brinkley worried the hospital could get "lost in the brush" inside a big system. The county's outside attorney, Tom Waldrop, who has worked on more than 15 rural hospital deals, called the 10-year commitment generous, noting that similar deals often run only two or three years.
The final agreement grew to 174 pages. Commissioners approved it unanimously at a June 15 meeting. "This is a momentous day for Surry County, in my opinion," Commissioner Van Tucker said that night, according to The Mount Airy News. Vice chair Bill Goins said, "This is the biggest thing that we have done — to secure health care for all of our citizens."
As reported by The Mount Airy News, the main terms are:
Closing was first expected around Sept. 30, pending regulatory approvals, the paper reported in June. The deal closed about a month later, on Nov. 2. The hospital district will keep Mountain Valley Hospice, which it now owns outright.
Novant already had ties to Mount Airy before the sale, including a heart and vascular care agreement and tele-neurology for stroke patients, Becker's reported. Novant also took over Community Hospital of Stokes in Danbury on June 1, The Stokes News reported. That deal brought in a 53-bed critical access hospital, a 40-bed nursing home, four clinics in King, Danbury and Pine Hall, and about 200 workers.
With Mount Airy added, Novant runs 23 hospitals and more than 900 locations in North and South Carolina, according to Becker's. Novant says it plans to expand services at the hospital and across Surry County. It hasn't said yet which services will come first.
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