CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The top executives at Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health shared a common goal for their partnership during Atrium’s quarterly board meeting on Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center.
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Atrium CEO Gene Woods and Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist and dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine, emphasized a commitment to reaching an underserved rural North Carolina population in light of their plans to bring a four-year medical school to Charlotte. The campus would be the first of its kind in the region.
Woods said Tuesday that 45% of North Carolina residents live in rural counties, but just 18% of primary care doctors practice primarily in those counties. More than half of North Carolina’s counties are tabbed as full or partial health-professional shortage areas.
With Wake Forest as a partner, Atrium expects that it could cover 80% of western North Carolina’s rural population.
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That would start, though, with keeping more in-state students to study at the Wake Forest School of Medicine and thus, the future Charlotte campus. Only 40% of Wake Forest’s medical students are from North Carolina, something Freischlag wants to improve upon with the new campus.
“We know if you’re from here and you do residency [in North Carolina], you’ll stay here and practice,” she said, “And we need them in rural areas.”
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