New North Carolina Surgical Hospital opens, first operations successful

On Aug. 26, the North Carolina Surgical Hospital opened after more than five years of construction.

The new hospital is the largest addition to the UNC Hospitals system since the N.C. Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1952. While ground broke for the project in May 2019, COVID-19-related supply chain issues led to delays in construction, Alan Wolf, the director of local news and issues at the UNC School of Medicine, said. 

The project cost roughly $425 million and funding was provided by borrowing and selling bonds and UNC Health cash reserves, Wolf said.

Operating rooms in the new hospital are 50 percent larger than those in the N.C. Memorial Hospital, Wolf said. The new hospital will also feature 26 surgical suites and new technology including “hybrid spaces," which utilize imaging technology to improve accuracy during surgical procedures.

While 400 employees from the N.C. Memorial Hospital will be transferred to the N.C. Surgical Hospital, some operations will stay in the N.C. Memorial Hospital, including the burn center, outpatient surgeries, oral surgeries and the children’s operating room, Caprice Greenberg, the chair of the UNC Department of Surgery, said.

Treatments offered at the new hospital include advanced burn care, advanced neurosurgery and transplants, David Zvara, the chief medical officer of UNC Hospitals, said. Zvara also said many of these treatments are not available in other parts of the state. 

Greenberg said the hospital also has new audio and video features within operating rooms to record cases so staff can improve future operations. Surgeons will also have more direct communication with pathologists who can examine removed specimens and determine whether additional surgery is needed, she said.

The hospital was designed with the most state-of-the-art technology in mind and with the capacity to grow as technology advances, Greenberg said. 

“On any given day, we’ve got a patient from every county, and they didn't come here because it was easy to get here,” Zvara said. “They came here because we offered the unique, special services that are required, and this new surgical hospital will allow us to continue that for decades to come.”

Increased demand for specialized care and population growth throughout the state caused UNC Hospitals to discuss constructing the new surgical hospital over a decade ago, Greenberg said.

The need for children’s care at the N.C. Memorial Hospital, specifically, increased following COVID-19 due to a growing trend of children’s wards closing across the state, Wolf said.

"These smaller hospitals that are struggling — particularly in rural areas — are having to make some tough choices about how do they continue to fulfill their mission? How do they continue to stay open?" Wolf said.

During its first day of operation, surgeons at the hospital completed a liver transplant and roughly half a dozen other procedures, Zvara said. He also said the new hospital will allow for more innovative care.

“I think every surgeon I saw after they operated over there was just commenting on how amazing it was, how much room there was, how all the equipment worked so well and everything went really smoothly,” Greenberg said.

500 employees will staff the new hospital, creating 100 new jobs, Greenberg said. She said the hospital is currently hiring positions including advanced practice providers, nursing staff, support staff and anesthesia providers.

"This is a place that people want to come to practice medicine, [which is] an important part of the mission of UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine," Wolf said. "This building will be a good way to fulfill that mission.”

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