Latest Atrium and Novant competition over hospital beds heats up in Cabarrus County

The largest hospitals serving the Charlotte region are competing to add more hospital beds in Cabarrus County, with plans costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Atrium Health and Novant Health submitted proposals to the state Health Department to provide medical services to residents in the Charlotte suburb, according a list of projects released by the state on March 1. There’s a need to add 126 acute-care hospital beds in the county by 2027 for short-term patients, according to the 2025 State Medical Facilities Plan.

To fill that need, Charlotte-based Atrium Health and Novant Health, headquartered in Winston-Salem, filed Certificate of Need applications with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. If two or more hospitals are competing for services in a specific area, state regulators review each application to see if it meets CON requirements before selecting one to move forward.

N.C. law doesn’t allow health care providers to acquire, replace or add to their facilities and equipment, except in certain circumstances, without approval from the state. Approval is also required for certain medical services to help control increasing health care costs and to make sure services are not duplicated.

▪ Atrium Health wants to build a five-story patient tower with 126 beds at its Atrium Health Cabarrus campus in Concord at 920 Church St. If approved, the hospital’s bed total would be 671.

The tower would be adjacent and connected to the hospital building, according to the application. Atrium is also expanding and relocating services such as labs, pharmacy, dietary services and administrative office space.

A new parking deck and an emergency room are also on the site plan. The total projected cost is more than $208 million.

Patients choose Atrium’s services because of the quality of care and the expansion is needed to meet the needs of a growing community, the company said in a statement.

“Our facilities in Mecklenburg, Union and Cabarrus counties are running at high occupancy rates, creating a consistent demand on resources,” Atrium Health stated. “Therefore, additional bed licenses are needed. We are grateful that patients continue to choose Atrium Health for their care.”

▪ Novant wants to open a $336.4 million 50-hospital bed on Trinity Road in Concord.

In the application, Novant said the 50 beds is 40% of the projected need in Cabarrus County. But if Novant gets the nod to build, it will not stop the state from awarding the remaining beds to other applicants.

Novant said it would also improve competition. Atrium Health Cabarrus is the only hospital in the county.

The plans also include an emergency department and surgical services.

Novant is eager to provide a new opportunity for Cabarrus County patients to receive care closer to home, according to the hospital system. “We have been caring for patients from this area for many years, despite their often long commute for general and specialty care at our facilities in Mecklenburg and Rowan Counties,” Novant told The Charlotte Observer.

If approved, the hospital would be ready by 2030.

Novant is one of the largest hospital systems in North Carolina and the Southeast.

Its network has more than 900 locations, including 19 hospitals, 750 physician clinics, 40,000 employees, urgent care centers, outpatient facilities and imaging services.

Atrium Health is a part of Charlotte-based Advocate Health. The hospital system is the third-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. and serves about 6 million patients.

More than 155,000 employees work in 68 hospitals and over 1,000 health care locations.

Atrium Health also is partnering with Wake Forest University and Wexford Science & Technology to open the first four-year medical school in Charlotte this summer. Wake Forest University School of Medicine-Charlotte creates a second campus in midtown for the Winston-Salem-based school.

The 20-acre campus will be on the corner of South McDowell and Baxter streets in the Pearl District, a $1.5 billion project with retail, offices, hotels, apartments.