Settlement allows for Wake Forest Baptist hospital in Greensboro (2024)

Atrium Health and Cone Health confirmed Monday the healthcare systems have reached a settlement that will allow Atrium-affiliate Wake Forest Baptist to open a $246 million hospital at 2909 Horse Pen Creek Road in Greensboro.

The systems said in separate, brief statements they have agreed to settle Cone’s lawsuit opposing the Atrium plan and that the settlement terms are confidential.

The N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation released its portion of the settlement agreement Monday, including that Baptist can begin offering services at the 36-bed hospital on Jan. 1, 2029. Construction is slated to begin in June 2027.

For regulatory requirements, the 36 beds are being transferred from Baptist-affiliate High Point Regional Medical Center.

Cone said that “both organizations agree that this decision is in best interest of all parties involved.”

Atrium said that “we are pleased that we have reached a settlement on this project which will allow us to continue to meet the growing needs of those who live and work in Greensboro. We look forward to sharing more details at the appropriate time.”

State health regulators informed Baptist on July 26, 2023, that it had proven the overall need for the proposed hospital. The approval became public Aug. 9.

Baptist initially projected construction commencing by December 2024 with a goal of opening by July 2026. It would have at least 152 full-time-equivalent employees at full capacity.

Before the settlement agreement, Atrium, Baptist and Cone engaged in public displays of disagreements with each other’s claims, including at a N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation public hearing on the hospital proposal.

Appeals timeline

The proposed Baptist-affiliated hospital would be located about 2.1 miles from Cone’s MedCenter Greensboro facility.

When Cone filed on Aug. 24 its appeal of state health regulators’ approval of the Baptist certificate-of-need application, the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings said a final decision was due within 270 days “depending on whether continuances or extensions are given by the administrative law judge.” The 270-day mark was May 20.

However, Cone chose to dismiss the original appeal and refile it in late April to restart the 270-day time period and allowing potential settlement negotiations with Baptist to continue.

“We maintained that the projected hospital is about profits over patients,” Cone said in an August ad that ran in the News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal. “Its very location indicated a market-driven strategy versus a needs-based solution.”

Cone said in an August statement related to the advertisem*nts that ‘building a small hospital in an affluent part of Greensboro isn’t about competition. It is about syphoning off people with premium health insurance. Everyone gets to pay for it.”

Atrium said in its application that opening Greensboro Medical Center would be complementary and supplementary to Cone’s health care.

“Approval of Greensboro Medical Center will enable Greensboro to match the other top five North Carolina cities in hosting multiple hospital systems and having local hospital competition, which will be a benefit to local residents,” according to the Atrium application.

Cone said in the ad that its appeal has support from Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and other community leaders.

Vaughan said at an April 2023 public hearing on the proposal that while she supports a second Greensboro hospital, she prefers that it operate in the east Greensboro area.

Vaughan could not be immediately reached for comment on the settlement agreement and whether it meets her preference for a second Greensboro hospital.

Background

The purpose of the state’s CON laws is to limit or prevent duplication of medical services within a community. The laws also serve as a disincentive to for-profit health-care providers to open facilities.

The 36 beds would be transferred from Baptist-operated High Point Medical Center, rather than be newly created in the county.

The proposed facility also would feature no more than 12 observation beds, two procedure rooms, 20 emergency-department bays, two fixed CT scanners, one general radiology X-ray unit, one fluoroscopy X-ray unit, two ultrasound units, one SPECT scanner, one mammography unit and one fixed MRI unit.

In their 49-page analysis of the Baptist application, regulators indicated they did not view the proposed hospital as providing duplicative services, and that those services are needed in the community.

Yet, Cone asks in its ad that “knowing that the plans also call for the inclusion of a helipad begs the question ‘why here?’ There is a level 2 trauma center just minutes away at Moses Cone Hospital.”

Baptist has the Triad’s only level 1 trauma center for adults.

Cone answered its question by saying, “the answer is likely to carry patients who required advanced medical care, that the proposed facility will be unequipped to provide, to Winston-Salem.”

“Who do you think will be asked to foot the bill for that very expensive 10-minute helicopter ride? Patients and their families, of course?”

Atrium and Baptist have said patients will be transferred to the Winston-Salem hospital if they require a high-level of care beyond the services provided at the proposed Greensboro hospital.

It’s not all that different a transfer than how most of the community hospitals operated by Atrium, Baptist, Cone and Novant Health Inc. send high-level care patients to their main campuses.

Atrium said in its application that opening Greensboro Medical Center would be complementary and supplementary to Cone’s health care.

“Approval of the Greensboro Medical Center will enable Greensboro to match the other top five North Carolina cities in hosting multiple hospital systems and having local hospital competition, which will be a benefit to local residents,” according to the Atrium application.