UNC Health plans to open 2 ER & urgent care facilities. Here’s where
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- UNC Health plans hybrid ER and urgent care sites in Raleigh and Apex by 2027.
- The health provider needs state Certificate of Need approval.
- These are UNC Health’s latest expansion plans for health care services in the Triangle.
UNC Health wants to open stand-alone facilities with emergency departments and urgent care under the same roof.
The health care provider hopes to eventually have a network of these facilities, but only two locations have been announced so far — one in a former Walgreens in Raleigh, and another in a newly constructed building in Apex.
This isn’t a done deal, though. UNC Health must first get Certificate of Need approval from the state Department of Health and Human Services.
“These state-of-the-art facilities will complement the care already delivered through our hospitals and clinics statewide, reduce unnecessary emergency visits, and improve the overall patient experience,” Dr. Cristy Page, interim CEO of UNC Health, said in a news release.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 155.4 million people in the U.S. visited emergency departments in 2022, up from about 145.6 million in 2016.
UNC Health combined emergency rooms and urgent care clinics
The hybrid facilities will have a full-service emergency department and urgent care, including on-site lab equipment and a radiology suite with X-ray and CT scanners.
If UNC Health’s plans are approved, its first two facilities will be in a former Walgreens at 8385 Creedmoor Road in Raleigh and a new building at 3809 US-64 West in Apex.
Those clinics would open in 2027.
UNC Health is partnering with Dallas-based Intuitive Health to develop the facilities and run the daily operations, alongside UNC Health clinical leaders. Patients will be treated by UNC Health physicians and other providers. A board-certified emergency physician will evaluate each patient upon arrival to determine which kind of care is appropriate.
Intuitive Health has partnered with health systems across the country, including in Virginia, Texas and Florida on combined emergency room and urgent care facilities.
“Patients no longer need to choose between ER and urgent care, they can come to a single location and get excellent care, in a highly efficient environment, while only paying for the level of care that they actually need,” Thom Herrmann, CEO of Intuitive Health, said in a news release.
Emergency rooms in the Triangle
There aren’t any emergency rooms in the immediate area around the Creedmoor Road site. The closest emergency department is at WakeMed’s North Hospital, about 6 miles away.
WakeMed has an emergency department at its Apex Healthplex, which is about 5 miles from the potential future UNC Health emergency room/urgent care facility.
Often, patients have to choose between an emergency department and an urgent care clinic.
Dr. Ryan Lamb, the medical director and chair of the emergency department at UNC Rex Hospital and Rex Holly Springs, previously told The News & Observer that people apologize for visiting the emergency room or may worry that the ER is too busy for them.
The main differences between emergency departments and urgent care clinics, Lamb said, are the medical staff and the facilities’ capabilities.
UNC Health expansion plans
These combined emergency department and urgent care facilities are UNC Health’s latest expansion plans for health care services in the Triangle.
Earlier this year, UNC Health and Duke Health announced plans to open North Carolina’s only freestanding children’s hospital, The N&O previously reported.
The 500-bed hospital, NC Children’s Health, will be part of the Veridea development in Apex, a project near U.S. 1 and N.C. 540 that will also include offices, retail, a new Wake Tech Community College campus and 8,000 homes.
NC Children’s Health is also expected to have an outpatient center and a 103-bed behavioral health hospital.
While the two academic health systems and WakeMed already have children’s hospitals, UNC Health and Duke Health said the new facility will draw from their expertise and research to offer the kind of complex treatments available at the top medical centers in the U.S.
