Atrium and Novant offer competing expansion plans. The state will pick the winner
Charlotte’s largest hospital systems are competing over new acute care beds and operating rooms.
Novant Health and Atrium Health have each proposed new development projects to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Altogether, the systems have requested seven operating rooms and 96 acute care beds in Mecklenburg County. But the state will only approve six new operating rooms and 76 new acute care beds in Mecklenburg County this year, according to the 2019 State Medical Facilities Plan.
Novant proposed two projects developing one additional operating room and 20 additional acute care beds in Matthews. The combined cost would be $29.4 million, and if approved, both projects are expected to be completed in July 2023.
Novant Health Matthews Medical Center has to expand its surgical services and bed capacity to keep pace with a growing population, the facility’s president, Roland Bibeau, said in a statement. “Matthews is thriving and in order to better serve our community we have to grow along with it,” he said.
Atrium proposed six projects developing six additional operating rooms and 76 additional acute care beds, costing a total of $192.2 million.
No other applications for additional operating rooms or acute care beds in Mecklenburg County have been filed with the department this year, according to the agency’s website.
The agency could approve either of the hospital systems’ applications or portions of both, but not both in full.
The Atrium projects include its $147-million satellite hospital project, Atrium Health Lake Norman, with 30 acute care beds and two operating rooms; 16 more acute care beds at the Atrium Health University City hospital; 18 additional acute care beds at the Carolinas Medical Center hospital; 12 additional acute care beds and two additional operating rooms at Atrium Health Pineville.
The systems filed applications with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
The department will hold public hearings on the proposals on Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. in room 270 of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center before coming to a decision in the months-long process.
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