A public hearing is set for April 18 on a proposed a $246.5 million, 36-bed community hospital that would be opened in northern Greensboro by July 2026.
An affiliate of Atrium Health, High Point Regional Health System, filed in February a certificate-of-need application with the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation to relocate 36 acute care beds and two operating rooms from High Point Medical Center to the proposed Greensboro Medical Center.
The public hearing will be held at 1 p.m. in the Greensboro Public Library, Benjamin Branch, 1530 Benjamin Parkway.
Anyone may file written comments concerning this proposal. Comments must be received by the Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section no later than 5 p.m. March 31.
Atrium, which owns and operates Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, is attempting to fill what it considers as pivotal health-care market gaps — internally and within the Triad — with the Greensboro hospital proposal.
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The Charlotte-based system projects getting a decision from the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation by Sept. 1 and — if approved — construction commencing by December 2024.
Atrium has said little publicly about its proposal.
It’s clear, however, from the application that Atrium desires a hospital presence in the state’s third-largest city, which also is the largest city without two competing hospitals.
Atrium also wants to become the first health-care system to operate a hospital in the Triad’s three largest cities.
“Approval of Greensboro Medical Center will enable Greensboro to match the other top five North Carolina cities in hosting multiple hospital systems and having local hospital competition, which will be a benefit to local residents,” according to the application.
Atrium said the proposed campus at 2909 Horse Pen Creek Road would provide more health-care services for city residents and surrounding counties.
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said she looks forward to “learning more about the proposal and why the Horse Pen Creek location was chosen.”
“Last year, Cone Health opened a new integrated health-care facility less than two miles away,” she said. “We have a need for health care in underserved areas of our city. We welcome more health care providers especially in areas where they can really have an impact.”
Replanting flag
Atrium would be able to replant a strategic flag as it grows comfortable in its affiliation with Advocate Health, the nation’s fifth-largest health-care system.
This time, the Atrium brand would be front and center in Greensboro.
Keith Debbage, a joint professor of Geography & Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality at UNCG, said that “a health-care market that offers choice may well translate to health-care services that offer more competitive, affordable prices.
“Given the large market share that Cone enjoys in Guilford County,” he said, “this may be a good thing.”
In June 2012, Atrium (then branded as Carolinas HealthCare System) entered into a 10-year management contract with Cone in which it gleaned valuable operational insight into the Greensboro and Guilford County marketplaces.
That contract ended in February 2020 by mutual consent as Atrium was negotiating with Wake Forest Baptist to expand its collaboration beyond a November 2019 agreement.
That agreement proved to be the catalyst that led to Atrium acquiring all of Baptist in October 2020.
Meanwhile, Cone said it “will carefully study the proposal (from Atrium) to build a new hospital in Greensboro.”
In 2022, Cone opened the 160,000-square-foot MedCenter Greensboro facility at Drawbridge Parkway that’s just 2.1 miles away from the proposed Greensboro Medical Center site.
“For 70 years, Cone Health has been the health-care provider of choice to people in the Greensboro area. In that time, we have developed a reputation for compassionate, nationally-leading, high-quality health care. That will not change.”
