UNC Health is a not-for-profit medical system owned by the

State of North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and based in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. It provides services throughout the

Research Triangle The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh an ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. UNC Health was created in 1998, when the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

passed legislation that established the UNC Health Care System, bringing under one entity UNC Hospitals and the clinical programs of the

UNC School of Medicine The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree, along with combined Doctor of Medicine with Doctor of Philosophy degree and Doctor ...

. In 2018, the system reported over 3.5 million outpatient visits and over 500,000 emergency visits.

History

The first hospital in what later became known as UNC Hospitals and the UNC Health Care System was North Carolina Memorial Hospital, which opened on Sept. 2, 1952. Then in 1989, the North Carolina General Assembly created the University of North Carolina Hospitals entity as a unifying organization to govern constituent hospitals. Today, UNC Health consists of UNC Medical Center, Rex Healthcare, Chatham Hospital, Caldwell Memorial Hospital, Johnston Health, Pardee Hospital, Nash Health Care, Wayne Memorial Hospital, UNC Lenoir Health Care and UNC Health Rockingham. In addition, UNC Health Care includes UNC Faculty Physicians (the practice group serving UNC Hospitals) and the UNC Physicians Network (a wholly owned subsidiary of UNC Health that owns and operates community-based practices that provide primary and specialty care throughout the North Carolina Triangle area.). UNC Hospitals include the NC Memorial Hospital, NC Children's Hospital, NC Women's Hospital, NC Cancer Hospital (clinical home of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center), and the NC Neurosciences Hospital. Construction of a new $20 million office/hospital complex in Hillsborough, NC began in April 2011. As of July 2015, many services are now offered at the Hillsborough campus, including an

emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the Acute (medicine), ...

and general surgery. UNC Health and Charlotte-based

Atrium Health Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority (trade name, doing business as Atrium Health, formerly Carolinas HealthCare System) was a hospital network with more than 70,000 employees and, since its merger with Advocate Aurora Health in 2022. It ope ...

announced August 31, 2017 that the systems had signed a letter of intent (LOI) to join their clinical enterprises and collaborate to enhance medical education and research. Under the LOI, the two organizations agreed to start a period of exclusive negotiations, with the goal of entering into final agreements by the end of the year. Their goal is to form a new organization through a joint operating company structure. Executives of both systems said a larger network would improve the ability to negotiate with insurance companies and provide other cost reductions. The letter of intent signed August 30, 2017 said that if the proposed partnership was approved, UNC Health Care CEO Bill Roper would become executive chairman and Carolinas Healthcare CEO Gene Woods would be CEO of the new organization. However, questions about who would control the combined system led Atrium to back out of talks in March 2018. On October 25, 2017, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and High Point Regional Health System announced that Wake Forest Baptist would take over High Point Regional, a part of UNC Health since 2013, by Summer 2018. In November 2017, UNC Health purchased Morehead Memorial Hospital of

Eden, North Carolina Eden is a city in Rockingham County, North Carolina, Rockingham County in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Piedmont Triad, Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont Triad region. As of the United State ...

and rebranded it as UNC Health Rockingham in 2018.

History

See also