New UNC surgical hospital to bring more beds, new procedures to patients

UNC Chapel Hill has been home to a lot of construction over the past five years.

Orange barricades and changing traffic patterns have become the norm since 2019 in the area around UNC Hospitals main campus off Manning Drive.

Now, those barricades are gone.

On Friday, UNC staff and hospital executives got their first looks at the product of the years-long construction project: a new hospital dedicated entirely to surgery.

To date, over 1.7 million hours of construction has been put toward building the new UNC new surgical hospital.

It will provide 26 operating rooms, 59 pre- and post-operative rooms, 80 critical care beds and 15 observation beds.

“It’s a place that you’ll see a home that’s designed around a patient and a family and the people providing that care,” said UNC Health CEO Dr. Wesley Burks.

The facility encompasses 375-thousand square feet. The increased space provides room for new technology and more advanced procedures.

One of the new pieces of equipment is 4K video capabilities. It will allow surgeons to broadcast high-definition videos in real time during a procedure.

The footage can then be shared with other surgeons, members of the surgical team or pathologists anywhere in the globe.

“We can video conference, we can send these videos to the medical school in order to teach a large group of people, and we can use it for intra-operative consulting,” explained Steve Heacock.

Heacock is a registered nurse with UNC Hospitals Surgical Services. He said the new tech opens many new possibilities for surgical teams.

“The picture quality that we get from 4K is much better than what our current cameras are capable of doing. Currently we have four 4k cameras,” said Heacock.

Heacock also explained the new video technology will save valuable time for patients and their medical team.

“Instead of finishing a case and then getting that opinion and maybe having to go back and do another surgery, they can get it all during that one procedure,” he said.

The hospital will employ 500 people. 100 of those roles will be new positions.

“It’s about people. It means more people will receive state-of-the-art care right here,” said UNC Hospitals President Janet Hadar.

She continued, “It means our people our surgical teams, our critical providers, our support staff, will care for patients in a space truly befitting their skills and talents.”

The over $420-million facility will open its doors in July to patients.