WSTB

Nice catch.

Well, in re-reading it seems as if the $3.4 billion is invested in both W-S and Charlotte or am I simply misinterpreting?

What if it is for both cities. $3.4 BILLION is a huge amount of $$$$

Yes, it is, but how much goes where? What if it’s $700 million for W-S and the remainder for Charlotte. Does anyone have any definitive information on how much goes where?

Per the link that ForsythDeac posted:

"The new Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist brand comes after a great amount of collaborative work that has occurred as a result of the combination of the two organizations. Investments have been made by Atrium Health in Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem and the school’s new campus to be built in Charlotte. All told, this amounts to a combined $700 million investment in the region by Atrium Health, which is part of a $3.4 billion pledge by Atrium Health over 10 years."

This is how I read that -
[*] $700MM total investment in WF Baptist Hospital and WF School of Medicine in Charlotte
[*] Of that, $450MM is going towards the Baptist tower, leaving $250MM going to the School of Medicine Charlotte campus.
[*] That leaves $2.7B to be allocated. $600MM is going to the School of Medicine endowment and other school advancements, leaving $2.1B remaining.

Where the remaining ~$2.1B will go is the question. We know some will go to the Eye Care Center and some to the Brenner's Outpatient Center, but both are relatively small projects (combined less than $100MM). That is a lot of funds yet to be allocated.

"Today, it announced $3.4 billion in planned investments for Wake Forest Baptist Health and the communities it serves over the next 10 years." With communities it serves now also referring to Charlotte *(as evidenced by the Charlotte campus being part of the $3.4B investment).

https://atriumhealth.org/about-us/newsr ... salem-area

I don't think anyone has an in-depth breakdown of project spending because I'm not sure it is available to the public. That said, this is the original press release: https://atriumhealth.org/about-us/newsr ... salem-area

Realistically, the plan is to spend it all in the former WFBH markets (Winston area including High Point/Wilkes County/Lexington/etc). $3.4 billion over 10 years isn't really that much, especially for the combined Aurora/Atrium which will have $27 billion in annual revenue. That would mean around 1% of revenue per year spent on WFBH/WFU SoM and much of that spending I would guess is in the form of long term debt so it would be even less of the annual budget. Given that a lot of healthcare systems (Atrium included) are moving to values-based healthcare, updating clinical facilities to improve patient outcomes is a smart long-term move and would pay for itself.

In terms of projects we do know about: Atrium is spending $450MM on the critical care tower, $50MM on the eye institute, $600MM on expanding research and education at WFU SoM. Additional projects like the Brenner's outpatient center, translational research and population health center, renovating existing facilities, expanding telemedicine capabilities, etc. will likely make up a chunk of the remaining $2.3 billion. I wouldn't be surprised if the $3.4 billion is meant to be more of a target for projects started in the next decade (i.e. they may have started construction or announced some of these projects but they made not be completed by 2030).

Edit: Sorry was posting at the same time as WSBornandBred. For the $700MM I think it is the $450MM for the care tower, the $150MM WFU SoM endowment and the $70MM to accelerate research expansion at WFU SoM. Added up, that is $670MM so they might be rounding.

Thanks for that analysis. I reckon it remains to be seen.

I thought this quote was of note in today's TBJ. From Gene Woods

"Of course, we’re tying that innovation district to what we have in Winston-Salem, the IQ, which has done phenomenal work and we’ll continue to expand there with regenerative medicine and Alzheimer’s research. The only way we get to our new future is by inventing it and creating it. We’re going to have students, businesses, clinicians all working together on what is the latest new science. Then we’re also building the second campus of the Wake Forest School of Medicine here so we can train the next generation of clinicians. There will be a lot more announcements in the weeks and months to come as we continue to bring people and enroll people in our innovation district in Charlotte and in Winston. I think that’s just good for North Carolina because we want to be known as the innovation state, and we want to contribute to that vision."

This article was on the front page of CNN yesterday. Wake Forest and the WFIRM is featured.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/health/3 ... index.html

Thanks for posting. Good article - it would have been nice to mention where Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is located.

Good point yadkinv! In any basic media training you would learn to specifically include the words "Winston-Salem" in any interview about the WFIRM. As I've said several times, we seem to be our own worst enemy.

Alzheimer’s research is neurology, which is the type of research I want to see in the Innovation Quarter. I've long wanted to see a Neuroscinece Research Center built in phase II of the Innovation Quarter. Those are often very large buildings.

F&M I agree! That would be a great type of research for the IQ and from what I've read there is (and will be) quite a lot of money invested in that specific discipline.

Breaking News:
I just discovered the Neurosciences Research Building downtown is happening! Again, this is something I've wanted to see in the Innovation Quarter and now I've learned it is happening! Maybe that is what the really nice building across the street from the Eye Institute will be? A lot of focus was on Atrium Health funding half of the Eye Institute, a new tower on Hawthorne Hill, and a Translational and Population Health Center. Maybe this is that translational and population health building they funded, with a focus on neurosciences? The Translational and Population Health Center appeared in merger talks and then disappeared after the merger and now this neurosciences building is appearing? I know it (neurosciences building) will be inside the Innovation Quarter's next phase and appears to be the next building, after the Eye Institute! And only one building, other than the Eye Institute, has what appears to be a developed design. Wow! I think that is big news. I've seen these facilities become major anchors for research in other cities and yes, they are sizable buildings! While this is breaking news for us, Wake Forest and Atrium Health have talked about this since their merger started. That is why I'm thinking the design should be developed enough for it to be the building across the street from the Eye Institute.

The tall Wake Forest Medical School building, in Charlotte's The Pearl, is nearing completion of design and it's a boxy 15-storey building. Not the angled cladding 20-storey structure you've seen many times in Atrium Health presentations, but just a plain glass 15-storey box with a mechanical floor that I think lights-up on the skyline. It also appears to have an outdoor space on the sixth floor. The lower floors appear to have decorative fins/mullions. I guess we shall see when the final renderings are released. That should be soon. It's not as tall or fancy as the building you saw in the nice vision graphics. I remember being told that wasn't the final rendering and it wouldn't look like the angled glass structure they originally presented and that was true. It's still nice and I would love to have something that tall in downtown Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter. I think most of the taller Wexford buildings are this height and in a design similar to this.