UNC Health and Duke Health will build a freestanding children’s hospital in the Piedmont, North Carolina, area.
The academic health systems plan to build a 500-bed children’s hospital, a pediatric outpatient center and a children’s behavioral health facility. The project, fueled by a $320 million investment by the state, is set to break ground in 2027 and take six years to complete, the organizations said in a Tuesday news release.
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Duke executives at the 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month said partnerships and hospital acquisitions will be a focus for the Durham, North Carolina-based system in 2025.
Lisa Goodlett, Duke Health chief financial officer, said at the conference that neither Duke nor Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based UNC Health had enough specialists to staff a children's hospital on their own.
“This will be the first free-standing, independent children's hospital in the state of North Carolina,” she said. “That took a lot of understanding with the Medicaid program to show this business is now very valuable to both parties.”
