Over 200 Local Physicians and Clinical Providers Call on Atrium Health to Increase Access to Care in New Hanover County
Atrium Health files Certificate of Need application, offering a new full-service hospital to meet urgent need for high-quality healthcare in the region
WILMINGTON, N.C., June 15, 2026 – More than 200 local physicians and clinical providers of care across southeastern North Carolina have a clear message to their community: Wilmington deserves more healthcare options. Today, Atrium Health is answering that call.
Atrium Health has filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application with North Carolina to build a new full-service community hospital in the Wilmington area in New Hanover County. The filing is backed by local physicians who see every day what it means when a community has only one hospital option.
The need is both well documented and urgent; The Wilmington area was named the 7th fastest-growing metro region in the nation from 2024 to 2025, having added more than 75,000 new residents in recent years. Despite that growth, the region continues to rely on a single hospital operating at more than 92% occupancy. The 2026 State Medical Facilities Plan has identified 225 additional hospital beds in New Hanover County to address this need. Currently, many families wait weeks for specialist appointments and travel many hours to receive the care they deserve.
"Atrium Health has had a connection to southeastern North Carolina for decades — and as the region's healthcare needs continue to grow, we're ready to deepen our commitment by bringing a hospital, primary care and specialty care this community deserves," said Steve Smoot, EVP and president of the North Carolina and Georgia division at Advocate Health, of which Atrium Health is a part. "Today, this community has only one hospital and not enough doctors, meaning patients often have to wait or travel. We have seen, and then helped solve, similar challenges across North Carolina, and we're ready to do the same in New Hanover County. We're especially honored to have the support of over 200 local clinicians who know this community, know Atrium Health's record and have endorsed our application to build a new community hospital here."
From 2009 to 2020, Atrium Health was directly part of delivering access to healthcare to the Wilmington community, by managing and growing the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Physician Group to over 200 providers across more than a dozen specialties. Since 2007, Atrium Health has managed Columbus Regional Healthcare System in nearby Whiteville, employing their medical group and helping build a broad network of primary care and specialty services for that community. Many of the physicians practicing in southeastern North Carolina today trained or worked with Atrium Health previously.
When Hurricane Florence devastated the North Carolina coast in 2018, including New Hanover and Pender Counties, in addition to helicoptering in staff and supplies to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Atrium Health immediately deployed its one-of-a-kind MED-1 mobile hospital unit to Burgaw just miles from Wilmington. Teammates, first responders and other medical staff treated more than 900 patients over nearly two weeks, including delivering two babies, while the local hospital remained closed.
“I have practiced in southeastern North Carolina for over 20 years, and I have watched this community grow faster than our healthcare system can keep up," said Slade Suchecki, a family physician practicing in Southport, North Carolina. "My patients wait too long for specialists. Some drive hours for care they should be able to get close to home. This community deserves another option, and Atrium Health has the track record and the resources to deliver it.”
The proposed hospital would bring nationally recognized programs in cancer, cardiovascular and neurosciences to southeastern North Carolina. Atrium Health is home to one of only 57 National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the country, the highest level of cancer care recognition in the United States. Columbus Regional's Donayre Cancer Center is already a charter member of Atrium Health's Levine Cancer Institute Cancer Care Network, bringing specialized cancer care to the communities Atrium Health serves in this region today.
“Wilmington is one of the fastest growing communities in North Carolina and right now there is only one place to go when you need hospital care. That is not enough,” said William Bradford, an anesthesiologist in Wilmington, North Carolina. “Our community needs and deserves greater access, choice, and innovation. I am supporting this application and proposal because I have seen what Atrium Health does for the communities it serves.”
Atrium Health also brings the largest academic footprint in North Carolina, including two four-year medical school campuses, two allied health colleges and more than 1,200 residents and fellows across 173 Graduate Medical Education programs. Through its Academic Alliance, Atrium Health partners with 16 academic institutions across its footprint, creating a network that trains the next generation of clinicians and brings the latest advances in care closer to home.
As part of Advocate Health, the nation's third-largest nonprofit integrated health system, Atrium Health carries the strongest credit rating among the top five largest health systems in the nation, rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by S&P, both with stable outlooks. As a nonprofit health system with strong independent financial footing, Atrium Health has the ability to fund both planned and future investments and fulfill its commitments to this community for years to come.
To learn more about Atrium Health's proposed plan to care for New Hanover County, visit www.atriumhealth.org/newhanover.
About Atrium Health
Atrium Health is advancing clinical care and research across the communities it serves by redefining care for all. The care network is anchored by Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, an academic medical center in Charlotte that includes Levine Children’s Hospital, Levine Cancer Institute and Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, along with 11 hospitals, more than 900 care locations and over 1,400 physicians serving communities across the greater Charlotte region. It is part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States. Advocate Health is a preeminent academic health system at the forefront of clinical excellence, innovation and research, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as its academic core. Nationally recognized for expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, Advocate Health is also a pioneer in the delivery of virtual health care. It’s accelerating discovery by making research participation part of the standard-of-care through its one-of-a-kind National Center for Clinical Trials. Advocate Health has one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs, with an experiential learning focus and specialized residencies to help protect the long-term sustainability of rural health care in America. Each campus of the school of medicine has an affiliated life-sciences focused innovation district: The Pearl, in Charlotte, and Innovation Quarter, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With more than 165,000 teammates serving patients at 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations across eight states, Advocate Health reinvests over $6 billion each year to improve community health, making it one of the nation’s largest providers of community benefit.
About Advocate Health
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States. A preeminent academic health system at the forefront of clinical excellence, innovation and research, it delivers care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois; Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Wake Forest University School of Medicine is its academic core. Nationally recognized for expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, Advocate Health is also a pioneer in the delivery of virtual health care. It is accelerating discovery by making research participation part of the standard-of-care through its one-of-a-kind National Center for Clinical Trials, plus two affiliated life-sciences-focused innovation districts and one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs. With more than 165,000 teammates serving patients at 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations across eight states, Advocate Health reinvests over $6 billion each year to improve community health, making it one of the nation’s largest providers of community benefit.