UNC Health and Duke Health have announced plans to build a new children’s health system in North Carolina in what will be the state’s first freestanding hospital dedicated to caring for kids, according to a Jan. 28 release from Duke.
The project is expected to cost around $2 billion, per Axios.
Plans for NC Children’s include a 500-bed children’s hospital, a children’s outpatient care center, a behavioral health center, an ambulatory surgical center and medical office building.
Officials from Duke Health and UNC Health said it is still early in the project planning process, so they have not made determinations around selecting a designer nor general contractor.
The campus will be built on a 100-plus acre site, yet to be determined, somewhere in the Research Triangle, a region of North Carolina anchored by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The roughly 4,800-square-mile area is home to The University of North Carolina, Duke University and North Carolina State University.
A freestanding children’s hospital in the state has been a decade-long goal for both institutions, per the release. A $320 million investment into the facility by the state of North Carolina in early 2024 advanced the discussions for a collaboration between the University of North Carolina and Duke.
The partners plan to break ground by 2027, with construction of the campus anticipated to take roughly six years. The hospital will open in the early 2030s, per the release, but core services, such as the behavioral health hospital, ambulatory surgical center or medical office building may open years earlier.
