Atrium Health has become accustomed to setting the bar in health care – from innovative treatments and care models to community initiatives that benefit entire lives beyond hospital walls and an overall goal to bring high quality health care to more people. At the third quarter meeting of the Atrium Health Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, August 13, leaders reported that strategy has kept the organization's financials strong – with a net operating revenue at $5.9 billion for the first six months of 2024, 9.2% over its projected budget driven by strong patient demand in almost every clinical area Atrium Health supports.
Ken Haynes, president of Advocate Health’s Southeast Region, which includes Atrium Health, told the board that so far this year, hiring new teammates at Atrium Health is up 4%. Leaders credited that number to candidate-centric hiring practices being used by talent acquisition, nursing and other hiring departments to create a positive experience for new teammates.
“Recruiting these teammates is so important because we want to have the best candidates working for us in a safe and positive working environment,” Haynes said. “All this while maximize our cost savings. And, at the halfway point of our three-year integration plan, Advocate Health has achieved $518 million in net synergies, well on our way to our goal of delivering a billion dollars in synergies by 2025.”
Care That Goes Beyond the Bottom Line
Those savings do more than help Advocate Health’s bottom line. They translate into more efficient and effective health care services for patients, including increased surgeries, faster emergency care and more.
Haynes told the board that Atrium Health Levine Cancer is on pace for 68 cases using CAR-T cell therapy this year. CAR-T therapy uses T cells, which normally fight off infections, but infuses them with chimeric antigen receptors which allows them to target and kill cancer cells. It’s highly effective and highly specialized. There are only a limited number of cancer care centers that even offer it.
“Although we are growing as Advocate Health, we are committed more than ever to strengthening our communities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia,” Haynes said.
Recent strategic partnerships, such as the one with Atrium Health Floyd and Harbin Clinic, are bringing better access to quality health care for communities in Georgia and beyond, where these two organizations have likely provided some kind of care for every family in the area over their combined 150 years.
Haynes highlighted several numbers showing just how much Atrium Health has grown across the Southeast Region in 2024 compared to 2023, including a 5% increase each in emergency department, medical group and urgent care visits as well as a 2% increase in surgeries and a 6% increase in hospital discharges.
It’s all proof of just how fast the area is growing, a sentiment echoed by many members of the board and a large part of the reason why commissioners voted unanimously to approve$19 million to file a Certificate of Need (CON) that would add nearly two dozen additional inpatient beds to the new Atrium Health Lake Norman hospital currently under construction in Cornelius. Initially planned for 171,000 sq. feet with 36 inpatient beds, emergency services and two operating rooms, the expansion will add 23 additional beds and three observation spaces. The hospital is expected to open in summer 2025 and the additional beds would open several months later, bringing much needed emergency, primary and specialty care to a rapidly expanding part of the greater Charlotte area.
Better Care – For All
As a testament to Advocate Health's dedication to nurturing healthier communities, Haynes told the board that Advocate Health has reinvested more than $6 billion into community health initiatives (that’s over $16 million a day!). These efforts are focused on addressing critical issues such as hunger, homelessness and mental health, demonstrating a commitment to improving lives beyond health care.
As North Carolina’s largest provider of Medicaid services, Atrium Health sees firsthand the effects of medical debt on individuals and families who can’t afford to pay for their care.
That’s why, Haynes explained, Atrium Health has worked proactively for years to address medical debt for its patients, including voluntarily increasing the threshold to qualify for charity care to three times the federal poverty level, discontinuing both the filing of liens and reporting debt to credit reporting agencies and expanding its automatic financial assistance eligibility process for low-income and uninsured patients.
North Carolina health systems, including Atrium Health, recently signed on to the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program preprint, which provides hospitals with enhanced federal funding in exchange for canceling existing medical debt for low-income patients.
“We believe we all have a shared responsibility to create a health care system that truly and equitably serves every person in North Carolina and all of America,” Haynes said.
Haynes told the board that Atrium Health did express concerns to state officials that while the program has wonderful intentions, it doesn’t do enough to address the full picture of the root causes of medical debt and it could lead to some unintended consequences – including the impact this program can have on struggling hospitals in rural areas, among others.
It’s all part of Atrium Health’s journey to turn its promise of health, hope and healing into a reality for all.
