Wake Forest plans to build a full second campus of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Charlotte, which would ultimately educate some 3,200 students, residents and fellows each year across 100 specialized medical programs.
It’s about time. Charlotte has long been the largest U.S. city without a full four-year medical program.
The agreement announced Wednesday actually only commits Atrium and Wake Forest to a period of exclusive negotiations. The idea is to have a final agreement and contract by the end of 2019.
State Treasurer Dale Folwell, who was among the most vehement critics of the Atrium-UNC collaboration, also has reservations about the Wake Forest plan. “It’s a huge negative to the community that I grew up in, it’s a huge negative for taxpayers and and it’s a huge negative for state employees,” says Folwell, a Forsyth County native. “No one has ever been able to produce a report that this kind of merger is better for consumers, increases transparency or lowers costs for patients.”
Either you have the foresight and courage to take on a project like a medical school or you don’t. It looks like the UNC board and the NC politicians don’t have the stomach for it. I think CHP looks like a puppet given the article that was recently published, and the UNC system looks like they have some egg on their face. To come out and say we can’t do this only to have someone come by a month later and say we are going to get this done looks pretty bad. If you can’t start a medical school in Charlotte due to finances then how can the rest of the med schools afford it?
Dubois is at the end of his tenure and he wasn’t going to get a Medical School started. I wouldn’t want him to anyway due to the fact he has no ability to think strategically. Now we have lost all chances of a Medical school happening so lets hope for a law school one day.
Also, Dubois has one large donor who won’t let him be fired… He’s very pro Phil
"We have been envisioning bringing a four-year school of medicine to Charlotte area for decades, and to witness the possibility of this becoming a reality is truly incredible.’ - Vi Lyles
This has been a no brainer for a long time. Charlotte is the largest city in the country without a medical school. There is a huge doctor shortage in the country. Phil should have been begging Atrium for a partnership not turning his back at them.
Honestly, I think the next chancellor should still pursue a medical school but it will be so much harder now. The demand for doctors still rapidly exceeds the supply.
Chances of UNCC getting a law school are zero. Not only is there diminished demand for new lawyers, if UNCC tried to get in that game I’d expect NC Central or its alums to sue to block it, as HBCUs successfully did in Maryland over program duplication by PWIs.
Obviously the job has outgrown Dubois! He has proven to be a weak and ineffective leader for a University our size. The loss of a medical school shows it is time for him to go .
The Atrium-Wake Forest deal will be a big win for the Charlotte area and people. Better medical care, a driver for more high paying jobs, increased tax base, and prestige on a national scale. There has been an unfilled need for this for a long time, and both Novant and Atrium have tried to initiate partnerships to open a medical school. Too bad the State of NC, the UNC system, and UNC Charlotte have ignored those calls to action.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and anyone that thought Charlotte would remain the largest city in the US without a medical school, and that two of the largest hospital systems in the nation would continue to be ignored, lacks any business sense. I have no idea whether the partnership Atrium was exploring made sense for the UNC system, but clearly Wake Forest thinks it does. Having been on the campus that was Wake Forest College in Wake Forest, NC, and also on the campus of WFU in Winston-Salem, I am not surprised that they are willing to plant their flag and move to Charlotte with their Business School and Medical School. They are smart enough to recognize where the opportunities are, and Charlotte certainly offers them more than Winston-Salem does. We have been shut out in our own hometown because our leaders do not see it.
Deals do fall apart, so maybe there is still hope, but if people on our team are not calling them right now UNC Charlotte will not have another shot at a medical school in our lives.
The US population is stilling growing, people will always get sick, and the cost of healthcare continues to increase. Plus, the baby boomer doctors will retire in the next 20 years.
Haven’t you heard? We’re full up, quoth the president.
Reasonable point about Boomer docs retiring. But still, the only 3 med schools in NC I’m reasonably certain will be alright regardless are Duke, UNC and Wake, in roughly that order. ECU’s med school has already had some financial difficulties and that’s at the top of the long-term med-business cycle.