With a goal of continuously offering best-in-class pediatric care and connecting families to the most comprehensive care across the Carolinas and Georgia, Atrium Health - part of Charlotte-based Advocate Health - has reached a milestone within its children’s services.
Effective today, all pediatric care services at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, including Brenner Children’s Hospital, and Atrium Health Navicent, including Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital in Macon, Georgia, are unifying under the Atrium Health Levine Children’s brand.
This unified brand aligns Atrium Health’s expert pediatric care under one, nationally recognized name, offering everything parents need for complete children’s health care. Built upon the strengths and talents of each location, the new structure allows seamless continuation of care close to home for pediatric patients, their families and their support systems.
“The extension of the Atrium Health Levine Children’s name is the logical next step to optimize and continue to build the best of our pediatric services across the Southeast,” said Dr. Stacy Nicholson, president of Atrium Health Levine Children’s. “Levine Children’s is known nationally for our high-level of care and children’s services at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Atrium Health Navicent have played a crucial role in that recognition, since combining a few years ago. We are thrilled to now align under the same name.
“To put it simply, the care our families have come to trust has not and will not go away” he added. “Rather, it’s strengthening by bringing together that great care we are all already providing.”
Atrium Health Levine Children’s will be added to the name of each location. The children’s hospital in Winston-Salem, will become Atrium Health Levine Children's Brenner Children’s Hospital and the children’s hospital in Macon will become Atrium Health Levine Children's Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital. Additionally, the pediatric outpatient facilities – primary care offices, emergency departments and specialty clinics – will also adopt the Atrium Health Levine Children’s name.
With this new alignment, Atrium Health Levine Children’s now represents three children’s hospitals, eight neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), 668 beds and more than 900 pediatric providers. Together, they provide more than 703,000 primary care and 481,000 specialty care visits annually. The brand, which offers more specialties than others in its respective communities, includes:
- Atrium Health Levine Children’s Brenner Children’s Hospital as the only Level I pediatric trauma center in the Triad region and northwest North Carolina, and one of three Level I trauma centers across Atrium Health, all caring for kids;
- The most advanced and largest NICUs in its communities, including the Dale and Karen Sisel NICU at Brenner Children’s Hospital;
- The most complex care, including transplants, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), cardiac surgery and more;
- Brenner Children’s Hospital as one of the only verified Level I children’s surgery centers in North Carolina and the only one in the 68-hospital Advocate Health organization;
- And, providing virtual care in more than 150 schools, making it possible for students to get care for minor conditions without missing class.
In addition to exceptional clinical services, Atrium Health Levine Children’s continues to focus on providing the best experience for children by prioritizing support services like child life, music therapy, pet therapy and more.
“Since our children’s hospital opened almost 40 years ago, through a generous gift from the Brenner family, we have been dedicated to meeting the needs of children and families across our entire region,” said Alisa Starbuck, president of Atrium Health Levine Children’s Brenner Children’s Hospital and vice president of women’s and children’s health services at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. “By uniting with the teams across the Southeast, we will be able to deliver more coordinated care to those who count on us, while expanding our research and education capabilities through Wake Forest University School of Medicine to discover new ways to treat pediatric illnesses and injuries and train the next generation of pediatric health care leaders.”
Both Brenner Children’s Hospital and Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital have a rich history of providing top pediatric care in their communities.
Since 1986, Brenner Children’s Hospital has gone from the first and only children’s hospital and pediatric emergency department in the Triad region and northwest North Carolina, to becoming the state’s first Level I pediatric trauma center.
This combination is a continuation of the integrated care Brenner Children’s Hospital and Levine Children’s Hospital have been providing together. In 2022, the hospitals’ pediatric heart teams joined together and work as one to lead the community's strongest pediatric heart program. The two hospitals are also working together with their colleagues at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the academic core of Atrium Health and Advocate Health, to explore the benefits of expanding primary care telehealth to children with complex chronic conditions.
With more than 30 years of leading pediatric care, Atrium Health Navicent expanded to open Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital in 2019 and has since become central and south Georgia’s only children’s hospital to provide expert pediatric specialty care, including one of the area’s most advanced NICUs to care for the smallest babies.
Aligning these top-level pediatric care systems under the Atrium Health Levine Children’s name further drives the organization’s mission of providing the best care for the health and well-being of children.
For more information on this dedicated pediatric health system, please visit WakeHealth.edu/LevineChildrens.
Media contacts:
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu; Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu