$84M Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital Approved

By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor

Plans for the new $84 million Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital in Charlotte have been approved by the North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation. The Charlotte-based health care system submitted its application in October 2011, seeking approval to build a new orthopedic health care facility that would replace the current one at 1901 Randolph Road, reported the Charlotte Business Journal.

Presbyterian will most likely start work on the new 64-bed hospital in three to six months and expects it to be completed by 2015. The new hospital will have a total surface area of 141,000 square feet. It will be located at the corner of Fifth Street and Caswell Road.

The new orthopedic care facility will feature 10 operating rooms, 12 dedicated observation beds and 16 transitional-care beds for skilled nursing care. Both operating rooms and patient rooms will be larger in size at the future hospital, which will continue to provide both inpatient and outpatient surgeries.  Of the 7,000 surgical interventions performed at Presbyterian Orthopedic in 2010, approximately 60 percent were outpatient.

The healthcare provider has yet to provide information regarding future plans for the current orthopedic hospital. The 50-year-old building used to be a hotel before it was converted into a skilled-nursing facility, following which it became an orthopedic hospital.

Presbyterian Orthopedic Hospital marked its 35^th anniversary in November of last year. It is the only orthopedic hospital in the Charlotte area and ranks among the country’s top 5 percent for surgical care measures. Becker’s Hospital review named it among the 60 best orthopedic facilities in the US.

Presbyterian healthcare is part of Winston-Salem based Novant Health Inc., a not-for-profit integrated system of 13 hospitals and a medical group consisting of 1,124 physicians in 355 clinic locations, as well as outpatient surgery centers, medical plazas, rehabilitation programs, diagnostic imaging centers and community health outreach programs. Novant employs 25,000 at its facilities North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.

Photo credit: Novant Health via Wikimedia Commons