UNC Health Care breaks ground on Hillsborough campus

UNC Health Care broke ground on its first satellite hospital Wednesday, a move intended to alleviate patient overcrowding at the main campus.

Local politicians and officials from Skanska, a global construction company, joined UNC Health Care executives to celebrate the start of construction of a 68-bed Hillsborough campus.

The $200 million project will include a 60,000 square foot physicians’ office building in addition to a main hospital building, which is expected to be about 260,000 square feet, Skanska Vice President Jim Becker said.

Construction on the physicians’ office building is set to begin next week, with completion scheduled for spring 2013.

The hospital building is still being designed and is scheduled to open July 1, 2015, a year later than originally planned.

The delay was a result of a compromise reached with the Alamance Regional Medical Center, which attempt to halt construction of the hospital in 2009.

Alamance appealed UNC’s state-approved certificate of need, which verifies the area needs additional services, but dropped the appeal when UNC conceded to delay receiving patients until 2015.

The hospital will be located minutes from Interstates 40 and 85 in the Waterstone development, which includes the Hillsborough campus of Durham Technical Community College.

The satellite facility will house 50 acute care beds, 18 intensive care unit beds, six operating rooms, two procedure rooms and an emergency room.

“We’re decompressing the main campus so we can better serve patients at the overfilled UNC campus,” said Chris Ellington, executive vice president and chief financial officer of UNC Health Care. “Expanding in Hillsborough will give patients a choice.”

Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said he is “delighted” UNC Health Care chose to build a facility in Hillsborough.

“Convenient and quality medical care will be right here in our front yard, but that’s not all,” he said in the opening remarks. “It will be a place of employment for many people in our community and adds to the range of employment opportunities and the vitality of our community.”

The new hospital will create about 500 jobs when completed and is expected to provide an economic boost for the community, said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who spoke at the ground-breaking.

“This campus that we are breaking ground on here today is an example of UNC’s growth and the medical center’s good work, but it’s going to translate into great things for the community and this state,” he said in remarks.

Price said the new hospital will serve as an anchor for the community and attract new businesses to the area.

The hospital will also provide medical training assistance, benefiting students at Durham Tech.

Ellington said the site is large enough to handle a future expansion of up to 250 additional beds.

The Hillsborough campus will also allow for more fully private beds.

Bringing cost-effective and convenient medical care to Hillsborough frees up space at the main UNC campus, which is operating at 90 to 95 percent capacity, said Dr. Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care.

“The Hillsborough campus is another part of our long-term strategy to move less complicated cases off our main campus and streamline services on Manning Drive,” Roper said.

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