UNC Health Care’s new 68-bed hospital in Hillsborough has all the services you might expect, including an emergency department, medical imaging, operating rooms and a critical care unit.

The interior, however, is more Martha Stewart than Marcus Welby, M.D.

“It doesn’t have that sterile hospital appearance, and that’s purposeful,” says Jeff Strickler, associate vice president for the Hillsborough campus. “We’re trying to create something that’s warm and inviting with a focus on healing and wellness.”

The four-story building boasts lots of windows and lots of light. There’s a soft color palette and a North Carolina nature theme throughout.

“The first floor is coastal, the middle levels are the Piedmont region, and the upper floors are the mountain region, so all the art and all the wayfinding match that theme,” explains Strickler.

HB Hosp WindowsTurning the corner around a hallway, sunlight appears to filter into the hospital through a grove of birch trees. It’s an optical illusion provided by a decorative window film spread floor to ceiling. On every floor there are glass panels and walls covered with similar nature scenes that let in light, but also grant privacy.

In addition, Strickler says local art helps provide an antidote to the antiseptic décor of older institutions.

“You’ll see photographs, pastels, watercolors, oils, 3D pieces of art,” says Strickler, gesturing to shelves that currently sit empty. “We’re really pleased to have that. It creates a healing environment.”

The new medical campus on Waterstone Drive has been six years in the making. Strickler says it’s a community hospital designed to serve a range of needs. While the emergency department is expected to treat up to 15,000 patients a year, much of the focus will be on elective surgeries.

That’s because several practices currently housed at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill will relocate to Hillsborough.

“It is sort of a surgically-leaning community hospital,” says Strickler. “This is where UNC is going to have a lot of our elective surgical practices. Our joint replacement surgeries will be done here, our elective spinal surgeries will be done here, opthamology cases and pretty much all of our non-cancer gynecological cases will be done here.”

That’s likely good news for many patients. In Chapel Hill, those needing joint replacement or spinal surgery must navigate parking decks, ramps and a lengthy pedestrian bridge to get to the hospital. In Hillsborough, they’ll be able to park just outside the front entrance.

Strickler says the Hillsborough campus design incorporates lessons learned at UNC’s older hospitals about what patients and their families need in times of illness and recovery.

“The patient experience is real important here at this facility, but also the family experience. One example of that is for the Intensive Care Unit, given the types of patients we may have, we have a family suite, and that’s a new concept.”

The family suite is like a mini-hotel room adjacent to the ICU, with two bedrooms, a common area and a kitchenette, where relatives of a patient can stay for a short time.

“This is really for a unique situation where you’ve got multiple family members in, or perhaps you’ve got people coming from a long distance and we’ve not yet made arrangements for them to go to a hotel,” says Strickler. “Their loved one may be struggling through the night and they can be close.”

The medical offices are already open, but the hospital itself is not yet ready to admit patients. There are still curtains to be hung, walls to be painted, equipment to be tested and art to install. Nonetheless, Strickler says the emergency room will open its doors in less than a month.

“The hospital is fully open August 31, that’s when we start the inpatient services, but as a service to the community we wanted to get some other things here earlier, so the emergency department is planning to open at 7 a.m. on July 6.”

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