The Triangle’s preeminent healthcare systems announced a major partnership on Tuesday to help advance a $2 billion health campus and stand-alone children’s hospital for North Carolina.
UNC Health and the Duke University Health System are teaming up to establish NC Children’s, a comprehensive children’s health campus aiming to provide a “higher volume of specialized pediatric care” and help families in North Carolina remain local when seeking complex health care for their kids. The project will be a private, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, according to the filings made to North Carolina by the pair of healthcare systems, and expands the vision for the children’s hospital first announced by UNC Health in September 2023.
A site in the Triangle for NC Children’s is not yet confirmed, according to Tuesday’s announcement, but the plan is to have a 100-acre campus of facilities dedicated to pediatric health and anchored by a roughly 500-bed children’s hospital. Beyond treatment, the campus will provide a “robust research and education enterprise” for UNC and Duke University, as the colleges’ respective medical schools would use it as a pediatric teaching hospital.
“This is an unprecedented partnership between UNC Health and Duke Health, aimed at elevating the care that’s available for all children in North Carolina,” said Dr. Wesley Burks, the CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine, in a release. “I’m delighted to work with our colleagues at Duke to create something that will make all North Carolinians proud and change lives for generations to come.”
“Children are the heart of our future, and families across North Carolina deserve access to the most comprehensive, highest quality care for their children,” added Dr. Craig Albanese, CEO of Duke University Health System. “This is a tremendous and unique opportunity to work together to reimagine how we deliver life-changing care to our region’s most vulnerable and we are grateful for the support of our state’s legislature.”
The combination of UNC Health and Duke Health’s children’s clinical programs and research efforts signals the opportunity for NC Children’s to become a top destination for those in the pediatric health field. The hospital and campus will aim to develop a practice model for providers from both Duke and UNC, which the healthcare systems say will allow them to retaining existing academic appointments, while still having an open medical staff for other qualified providers.
Tuesday’s release said after a site is finalized, the goal is to break ground together on the campus by 2027 and have the anchor hospital opened by the early 2030s. Other services could open sooner, like a children’s behavior health hospital or medical office building, and construction of the entire campus is expected to take roughly six years.
Once completed, all pediatric-related clinical services, programs and operations at both UNC Health and Duke University Health System will transfer to NC Children’s. A spokesperson for UNC Health confirmed to Chapelboro that no plans have yet been made for the North Carolina Children’s Hospital building at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. Both the North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill and Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center in Durham consistently rank among the best in the state and country, as they tied for No. 2 in the state and earned nine national rankings in children’s specialties this fall by the U.S. News & World Report.
Photo via Duke University Health System.
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