WakeMed leaders begin to make the case for merger with Charlotte-based Atrium
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The planned merger with Atrium includes a stated $2 billion investment in WakeMed.
- Wake County commissioners delayed approval for at least 90 days to gather information.
- Officials say WakeMed will remain a private nonprofit with local control of its board.
WakeMed leaders say they’ve got a lot of work ahead to sell skeptics on the benefits of merging with Charlotte-based Atrium Health but are confident they will win people over.
The two nonprofit health systems announced the planned combination late Friday, saying it would provide WakeMed with an infusion of investment in staff and facilities to help continue its mission of community healthcare.
Almost immediately, State Treasurer Brad Briner released a statement saying consolidation usually reduces competition and hurts consumers. Asked to sign off on the deal Monday, Wake County commissioners voted instead to delay a decision for at least 90 days to give WakeMed time to make the case for the merger and answer questions.
That process began with a press conference at WakeMed’s Heart Center on Tuesday morning. First to speak was Thad McDonald, a retired OB-GYN who heads the WakeMed board of directors and who acknowledged that news of the merger unsettled many people.
“I am acutely aware of the angst this announcement has caused with staff, with community leaders and with patients, and will say at the outset I completely understand,” McDonald said. “When first presented with the possibility, our executive committee felt the same thing. But after two years of due diligence, we came to see the pure beauty of it. I hope we can begin to redirect your thinking this morning.”
WakeMed officials emphasize that Atrium is not buying Wake County’s largest health system. WakeMed will remain a private nonprofit governed by a board with a majority still approved by the county, said Donald Gintzig, president and CEO.
Gintzig likened the merger to WakeMed joining a family.
“We’re joining a larger organization,” he said. “And it’s going to allow us to continue for many years to come to focus on this community.”
Atrium commits to local control of WakeMed
Atrium is the largest hospital provider in the Charlotte region and part of Advocate Health, the nation’s third-largest nonprofit academic health system centered around Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem.
Steve Smoot, who heads Advocate Health operations in North Carolina and Georgia, said the company shares WakeMed’s commitment to care for every person who walks through the door, regardless of ability to pay.
“This partnership is about more than shared values,” Smoot said. “It includes clear, written commitments to this community, including local governance, public reporting and ensuring that Wake County always has a seat at the table.”
The company says it would invest $2 billion in WakeMed, including redevelopment and expansion of its 65-year-old Raleigh Campus and newer WakeMed hospitals in Cary and North Raleigh.
Those expansions would help create 3,300 new healthcare jobs in Wake County over the next five years, WakeMed says.
“There are some combinations that result in mass layoffs and eliminations of jobs and those sorts of things,” Gintzig said. “This is about growing and adding jobs and growing and improving health.”
Concerns about consolidation in healthcare
Briner and others have questioned the benefits of the planned merger. Speaking to the Wake County Board of Commissioners on Monday, physician Joshua Ward, a hospitalist with Duke University Health System, said mergers like this are bad for patients and healthcare workers alike.
“As in almost all other industries, consolidation inevitably leads to less competition, increased prices, a worse product and a race to the bottom of workers’ pay,” Ward said.
Gintzig counters that the merger would help WakeMed provide better competition to the Triangle’s two other nonprofit health systems, UNC Health based in Chapel Hill and Duke Health based in Durham.
“One that is owned by the state of North Carolina, and one that has all the resources of Duke Health,” he told county commissioners. “This new partnership means Wake County will still be served by three strong systems. There will be more competition, not less.”
Gintzig said he looked forward to meeting with Briner and other skeptics to explain how the merger will help WakeMed thrive in the future.
“There’s a lot of information that people don’t understand,” he said. “At the end of the day, when we tell our story, I hope and pray that you will see the wisdom of what we’re trying to do.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 2:02 PM with the headline "WakeMed leaders begin to make the case for merger with Charlotte-based Atrium."
