By Carolina Journal Staff
- A legal settlement between UNC Health and Duke Health will lead to a new 102-bed hospital in southern Durham County.
- The two healthcare providers issued a statement Friday confirming plans for the UNC Hospitals Cary Campus. The settlement also will lead to more inpatient beds for Duke University Hospital.
- UNC, Duke, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services had been involved in a certificate-of-need dispute in Durham County that had reached the North Carolina Supreme Court.
A recent legal settlement between two of the Triangle’s major healthcare providers will lead to a new 102-bed hospital in southern Durham County by 2032. That’s according to a joint statement Friday from UNC Health and Duke Health.
The statement arrived one day after UNC Health and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services filed a motion in the North Carolina Supreme Court to dismiss an appeal in a certificate-of-need dispute with Duke Health.
“UNC Health and Duke Health have mutually resolved all pending litigation surrounding the approval and development of the new UNC Hospitals Cary Campus facility in southern Durham County,” according to the statement emailed to Carolina Journal. “The UNC Hospitals Cary Campus facility will include 102 acute care beds and two operating rooms and is expected to open around Jan. 1, 2032. Duke University Hospital will be approved to develop additional inpatient beds to serve patient needs.”
This is the most recent sign of cooperation between the two major healthcare providers.
UNC and Duke announced plans in January to work together to build North Carolina’s first standalone children’s hospital. The $2 billion project will feature a 500-bed hospital in the Research Triangle “region.” No specific site has been named for the more than 100-acre campus.
UNC and DHHS filed a document Thursday dropping an appeal in a dispute with Duke over state permission for 40 new hospital beds in Durham County.
The appeal landed at the state Supreme Court last September. At that time, UNC Health and state regulators asked the state’s highest court to end legal roadblocks for UNC’s proposed 40-bed hospital in Research Triangle Park.
The dispute pitted UNC against Duke over a government-mandated certificate of need. DHHS chose UNC over Duke to win a CON for new hospital beds and operating rooms in Durham County.
A split 2-1 ruling in August 2024 from the state Court of Appeals stopped UNC’s proposed hospital from moving forward. The Appeals Court ruled that the case should return to an administrative law judge. That judge would determine whether the absence of zoning for a hospital in UNC’s chosen location would block the healthcare provider from securing a CON.
The appeal had been based in part on a dissent from Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin. He would have allowed UNC’s plans to move forward.
In the Appeals Court’s 2024 ruling, Judges Hunter Murphy and Michael Stading upheld much of Administrative Law Judge Melissa Owens Lassiter’s decision favoring UNC Health. But Murphy and Stading agreed to send the case back to Lassiter to deal with one issue.
RTP zoning rules would prevent a new hospital, according to the majority opinion. The Appeals Court majority questioned Lassiter’s treatment of that concern, including her consideration of an alternate hospital site not included in the original CON application.
Griffin agreed with Murphy and Stading in upholding the portions of Lassiter’s ruling favoring UNC Health. He dissented from the decision to send the case back to the ALJ.
