Increasing need for health care means expansion for UNC Health Care

The stretch of Manning Drive where UNC Hospitals is located is the densest mile in North Carolina by population, Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said.

“It is almost impossible for them to squeeze yet another body into that campus,” Hemminger said.

The main campus of UNC Hospitals is 2.3 million square feet and growing — officials are evaluating plans for an approximately $177 million surgical tower.

Hemminger said the density of the hospital campus causes traffic problems, especially during peak times when shifts change. She said Chapel Hill Transit buses only have 84 seconds at a stop before the buses get backed up — so it is not feasible to add more buses to the road.

Plans to build a light rail system in the Triangle would alleviate the traffic, Hemminger said, but it would be eight to 10 years before construction begins. She said a light rail system would free up buses to travel to other parts of Orange County, which could transport patients to UNC Health Care clinics outside of Chapel Hill.

A growing system

UNC Health Care, the health care system UNC Hospitals is a part of, has acquired hospitals as far west as High Point and as far east as Kinston in the past three to five years, said Mel Hurston, senior vice president of operations for UNC Hospitals.

The system, which was created in 1998, has built clinics and taken over the management of hospitals all over North Carolina, Hurston said.

Hurston said this growth is driven by a need for more health care, something that isn’t always easy to provide. He said a state agency uses population studies to understand how much health care or how many more beds are necessary, then UNC Health Care applies the information from the study to provide the needed care.

Hurston said with the growing locations, the system also needs more health care providers. He said UNC Hospitals alone employs more than 8,000 people.

There are certain regulations hospitals must meet and costs associated with them, Hurston said, which means it can make more financial sense to join a large health care system, like UNC Health Care. Sharing functions, such as IT, human resources and suppliers, can cut down on costs.

“(Meeting regulations) is a very costly proposition and not all hospitals can afford it, so if they can connect with other places and help share, to the degree possible, some of those resources, that can reduce cost as well,” Hurston said.

Caring for the state

Over his almost 30-year career, Hurston said he has witnessed the health care industry change, and he thinks the industry is now headed in a direction toward larger networks instead of many independent hospitals.

“We are sharing information,” Hurston said. “We’re learning things together and we’re implementing things that are used in other industries as well as best practices.”

Kenji Brantley, system director of strategic planning for UNC Health Care, said part of his job is understanding and planning for the changes in health care across North Carolina.

“You’ve got an aging population that is increasingly sick or has different health challenges,” Brantley said. “You have a growing population. You have changes in how hospitals and doctors are paid for the care they provide. You also have an increasing focus by everyone to provide care better, with a higher quality at a lower cost in a way that creates wellness and just well being for the patients.”

Brantley said the growing network of UNC Health Care has allowed them to change how they help people and provide care. He said UNC Health Care isn’t waiting for patients to come to them — they have worked to increase accessibility for citizens across the state.

“We have this network now across the state where patients who live in rural North Carolina communities — who may otherwise not have access to cutting edge cancer care or a renowned vascular surgeon or may not be able to access those types of physicians — well, they now through their local community hospital may have a much better connection to some of the more complex care that we can provide here in Chapel Hill,” Brantley said.

Brantley said it has become increasingly important for physicians to be available where people are, where they work and go to school.

He said UNC Health Care has felt pressure to be in more locations, which led to the opening of the Hillsborough branch of UNC Hospitals, renovation at the Family Medicine Center and the establishment of the UNC Health Alliance.

He said the UNC Health Alliance is a network of over 3,500 health care providers who work to coordinate care for patients around North Carolina.

Brantley said medicine is changing to become more community-based and outpatient-focused. He said health care can work better in a community where people have direct access to health care and can get help before they need to come to a hospital.

“If we’re doing that and we’re keeping people healthy, then I think that is certainly the biggest win,” he said.

Hurston said funding for UNC Hospitals’ projects comes from revenue from operations and occasionally a bond.

“We then have to note our plan to accommodate that growth,” Hurston said. “We have to know how we’re going to pay for it. We have to know how we’re going to accommodate them.”

Hurston said the process of expansion can become more complex if fulfilling health care needs requires a new building on the hospital’s main campus or an addition to an already existing building.

In that case, the hospital has to evaluate how construction affects taxes and traffic patterns in Chapel Hill — but Hemminger is already trying to solve the latter issue.

“We are always looking to see how we can improve our transit system to go to the places people need to get to for jobs, for appointments, those kinds of things,” she said.

@jamielgwaltney

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