Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist contributed $1.2 billion in community benefit in 2023. This investment, which equates to $3.3 million per day, includes community outreach, education, research, financial assistance and many other unique efforts to help those in need.
As part of Advocate Health, the nation’s third-largest nonprofit health system, the $1.2 billion represents a portion of Advocate Health’s $6.05 billion in total community benefit.
“In 2023, as we celebrated North Carolina Baptist Hospital’s centennial, and 100 years of caring for our region, we are pleased to have set another record in the benefits we provide to the communities we serve,” said Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO and chief academic officer of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, chief academic officer and executive vice president of Advocate Health and executive vice president for health affairs at Wake Forest University.
“We broke ground on our new Charlotte campus of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, which will help us train even more physicians and health care professionals, invested in new clinical services in the Triad region, partnered with community organizations to reduce health disparities and improve quality of life and continued to lead groundbreaking research that has begun expanding across the Advocate Health footprint, which will magnify the impact we have on the lives of those in our region and our nation.”
Community benefits include community investments into free and discounted care for low-income patients, undercompensated care for those on Medicare and Medicaid and costs related to medical education and research, among other programs and services that promote health, well-being and community building.
“This community benefit report is evidence of our commitment to making a significant impact in all the communities we serve to make health care more accessible for all – including by addressing the social drivers that impact people's health,” said Advocate Health Chief Executive Officer Eugene A. Woods. “I am inspired on a daily basis by our team's dedication to providing nationally leading care, not just within our facilities, but well beyond our walls and into vulnerable communities in greatest need.”
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist reports its community benefit annually as required by the North Carolina Medical Care Commission, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Service Regulation.
Media contact: Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu