RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Two North Carolina-based university health systems plan to construct the state's first standalone children's hospital -- an undertaking that its boosters said will change lives physically and economically for decades to come.
UNC Health and Duke Health on Tuesday revealed the agreement to build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital in the state's Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
The "NC Children's" project also will include a children's outpatient care center and behavioral health center. Research and education operations backed by the system's two medical schools will also be onsite, the health systems said in a news release.
Groundbreaking on a 100-acre-plus campus -- the specific location yet to be identified -- is expected by 2027, with campus construction to take about six years. The price tag for the project is expected at more than $2 billion. A massive fundraising effort is anticipated.
There are children's hospitals already in North Carolina, including those operated by the University of North Carolina and Duke University health systems that are attached to their main campuses in the Triangle. This project, however, is described as the first freestanding hospital dedicated to caring for kids.
"This is a big splash that will ripple out literally for years and years and impact the people in our state and region in ways that I know we can't even imagine yet," Dr. Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine, said at a Raleigh announcement event also attended by Gov. Josh Stein, Senate leader Phil Berger and other education, political and health care notables.
The two entities filed paperwork on Tuesday with the state to create a nonprofit organization for a new children's health system called North Carolina Children's Health. Their respective pediatric-related clinical services, programs and operations will transfer to NC Children's.
The children's hospital idea has been a goal for many years for both institutions, which often are health care competitors. But a recent initial $320 million appropriation for the effort by the North Carolina General Assembly accelerated talks between the two systems.
"This is a tremendous and unique opportunity to work together to reimagine how we deliver life-changing care to our region's most vulnerable and we are grateful for the support of our state's legislature," Duke University Health System CEO Dr. Craig Albanese said in a release.
Stein said at the announcement event that the project will end up "saving the lives of countless children for generations to come."
Stein and Berger said the economic results also are striking for a growing state like North Carolina -- the ninth largest by population.
"This campus through its construction and operation will create thousands of jobs and be among the largest economic development projects in the history of the state of North Carolina," Berger said. "This is a win for the economy and for our children's health and for our state's infrastructure."
