As the UNC Health system continues its early planning for a future, free-standing children’s hospital in the Triangle, it recently announced the trio who are taking charge of the project.
A release from the statewide healthcare and hospital system on January 24 shared that Andy Willis, the chief of staff for UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine, will be working as the executive chief planning and development officer for the new North Carolina Children’s Hospital. Additionally, Dr. Ian Buchanan — the chief care innovation officer for UNC Health — will serve as the Chief Project Officer and Erin Edwards — the vice president of the current children’s hospital — will serve as the Vice President of Project Management.
The project was initially announced in September 2023, after the North Carolina General Assembly allocated $320 million in funding in their latest approved budget. The project aims to bring a stand-alone hospital to the Triangle. UNC Health officials said the facility would serve “children and families across our state and region” — which would entail moving most of the operations from the current North Carolina Children’s Hospital at the UNC Medical Center campus in Chapel Hill. The new facility would have a child an adolescent psychiatric hospital within its grounds and would aim to offer clinical and academic amenities to compete with “any of the top children’s hospitals in the country,” according to the initial announcement. With the project in its initial stages, UNC Health officials confirmed to Chapelboro it is unclear what could happen to the current building.
While the North Carolina General Assembly’s allocation is a start of the fundraising, UNC Health estimates the new facility is expected to need more than $2 billion in order to be fully built to the size and scope that the health care system is aiming for. More philanthropic efforts are expected to be announced in the coming years.
The early goal, according to UNC Health CEO Dr. Wesley Burks, is to have the hospital open by around 2030.
“Initial work will include site selection, working with potential partners, establishment of a governance structure, design scope, service line development and philanthropy,” Burks said in the release. “Andy, Ian, and Erin will collaborate closely with myself and Dr. Stephanie Davis, physician-and-chief of NC Children’s, as well as many others as we work together on this project that is so important for the children and families of North Carolina for generations to come.”
“We are thrilled that state leaders are investing in a North Carolina Children’s Hospital, which will expand access to critical healthcare for all children and families across the state,” Dr. Stephanie Duggins Davis, the Physician-in-Chief at UNC Children’s, said in September. “These investments will transform the care of children across the state, ensure a healthier future for North Carolina’s children and shape the future of behavioral healthcare for all children by providing the highest level of comprehensive care and improving health outcomes for future generations.”
The current North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill consistently ranks among the best in the state and country. In June, the U.S. News & World Report named UNC Children’s the second best children’s hospital in North Carolina and the fourth best in the southeastern United States. After first opening in 2002 as a separate facility on the UNC Medical Center, it has served more than 70,000 children each year and averages more than 200,000 annual visits.
While the UNC Medical Center could lose its children’s hospital, the campus is about to gain a new facility in the coming weeks. The North Carolina Surgical Hospital has set a UNC Health-run opening celebration in April after five years of construction, according to the health care system.
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