Atrium Health

In February, Atrium Health announced a partnership with the city of Charlotte on a violence intervention program that involves working with emergency room gunshot patients to find ways to prevent them from being repeat victims or perpetrators of violence. Statistics show that 25% of them end up that way within two to three years.

Some residents in Charlotte’s Elizabeth neighborhood are complaining about the way Atrium Health discharges patients from the emergency room at Mercy Hospital. In this week's BizWorthy, we talk about that, NBCUniversal job cuts in Charlotte and development plans that are stirring up opposition in Plaza Midwood.

In 2021, Americans will spend more than $ 4 trillion on health care, and the federal government expects that number to rise even more in the coming years. Costs are growing faster than the economy, and employers and people with commercial insurance coverage are covering a big portion of those bills. In Part 4 of WFAE's series The Price We Pay, reporter Dana Miller Ervin explores why, starting with rising hospital costs.

Leaders with the Charlotte area’s three largest hospital systems say their facilities are facing staff shortages and a strain on resources amid the surge in COVID-19 patients caused by the highly contagious delta variant and a low vaccination rate.

Medic, the agency that provides emergency medical services in Mecklenburg County, says its staff are stretched thin as they transport a growing number of COVID-19 patients to the region’s hospitals.

At least 50 hospital employees and nine patients at Atrium Health Pineville have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Mecklenburg County's Health Director said no staff members are in the hospital.

Some medical employees are protesting requirements for staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at North Carolina's largest hospitals.

Charlotte-based Atrium Health is growing even larger. The hospital system announced on Wednesday that it’s merging with a health system called Floyd, based in Rome, Georgia.

NC MedAssist will distribute free over-the-counter medications to Charlotte residents at the Camino Community Center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16.

Atrium Health has received state approval to build a new hospital in Cornelius. The facility, called Atrium Health Lake Norman, will have 30 beds and two operating rooms and is expected to open in early 2024.