NASCAR driver helps Novant Health break ground on children’s emergency center in NC
Novant Health has broken ground on a new children’s emergency department in Huntersville, a $2.4 million project made possible in part by contributions from NASCAR driver Martin Truex Jr.
The Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Children’s Emergency Services center will be open 24-7 in a 5,000-square-foot space within the existing emergency department at Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center.
The new children’s emergency center will have a separate entrance along with its own NASCAR-themed waiting room, according to Novant.
The Huntersville Medical Emergency Department sees about 40,000 patients a year — including about 5,000 kids, Novant spokeswoman Robin Baltimore told the Observer in an email.
Huntersville Medical Center was built in 2004 with 50 beds and has since grown to 140 beds, Baltimore said.
In 2018, Truex and partner Sherry Pollex donated $1.2 million to help fund two health programs, the emergency pediatric department and the SherryStrong Integrative Medicine Oncology Clinic at Novant Health’s Weisinger Cancer Institute in Charlotte.
Groundbreaking for the pediatric department was on Friday.
“We’re thrilled to see this space come to life,” Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center President Mike Riley said in a statement. “It’s important for children to be treated by physicians trained in pediatric emergency care in an environment designed with kids in mind.”
The emergency services center is set to open in the second quarter of 2022.
A number of other donors helped fund the center, including Auto-Owners Insurance, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski’s Checkered Flag Foundation, Gene Haas Foundation and the Evernham Family-Racing for a Reason Foundation.
The Novant Health center will join Atrium Health Levine Children’s Emergency Room in serving children in Huntersville.
The Atrium location, which opened in 2019, was the first emergency pediatric care location in the Lake Norman area.
The Atrium Health emergency center is located inside the Atrium Health Huntersville Emergency Department.
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