Advocate Health heads to Charlotte skies for Atrium hospital drone deliveries
Charlotte-based Advocate Health is launching a drone delivery service for hospitals next year, the health care giant announced Thursday.
The service will deliver prescriptions and health supplies to patients’ homes. It will also help reduce turnaround time for lab results used in diagnosis and treatment, Advocate said. Advocate is the parent company of Atrium Health.
Advocate claims this will be the country’s largest drone system for hospitals in terms of deliveries.
For the service, Advocate has contracted with Zipline, a South San Francisco-based drone company. Financial terms of the contract were not released in the announcement.
Associated fees for drone delivery customers were not provided in the announcement, nor did Advocate say when it might begin the service next year.
The rollout will start in Charlotte before expanding to Chicago and Milwaukee. Advocate plans to make a combined 100,000 deliveries per year across the three markets.
Advocate also is exploring expansion opportunities in rural Georgia to bridge gaps in health care access.
Advocate’s drones will also transport specimens between hospitals in its markets, providing faster results for patients, according to Advocate.
How Advocate drone delivery will work
Advocate’s delivery service will start with an order such as a prescription, lab specimen or medical supply. Next, the drone will fly to a patient’s yard or an Advocate facility.
Upon arriving, the drone will remain up to 300 feet in the air while a pod, attached by a tether and carrying the product, descends to the ground.
Precise deliveries will be made even in high winds and bad weather, according to Advocate.
Drone delivery expands across the Charlotte region
The Queen City is no stranger to drone deliveries.
Wing, a service owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., made its local debut last May at the Arboretum Shopping Center off Providence Road.
Initially launched to fulfill DoorDash orders, the service has expanded to the Northcross Shopping Center in Huntersville. It was the region’s first residential drone delivery provider.
Following the DoorDash partnership, Walmart became the second major company to contract with Wing last June. The retail giant plans to launch its own drone operations in the University City area of Charlotte, based out of the Supercenter at 7735 N. Tryon St.
More on Advocate Health
Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit health system in the United States, and Atrium Helath is the largest provider in the Charlotte region. Advocate Health serves 6 million patients across 69 hospitals and more than 1,000 care locations.
The system continues to bolster its footprint in North Carolina. It recently partnered with Wake Forest University to launch Charlotte’s first four-year medical school, the centerpiece of The Pearl innovation district.
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 5:06 AM.
