Today, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist held a ribbon-cutting event to officially mark the opening of the Julie Ann Freischlag Tower on the campus of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
The Freischlag Tower represents a $426 million investment by Atrium Health that will further elevate critical care capabilities for the Triad and the entire Northwest North Carolina region. The new seven-story, more than 327,000-square-foot building, will provide advanced medical technologies, innovative treatments and expanded critical care services.
“This new $426 million critical care tower is more than a building – it’s a promise fulfilled,” said Eugene A. Woods, CEO of Advocate Health. “We pledged to invest in the future of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and the people who call this community home, and today we’re delivering on that commitment. With leading-edge technology, expanded access to emergency and intensive care, and a setting designed for comfort and healing, the Julie Ann Freischlag Tower will provide the very best care when you need it most.”
Dr. Julie Freischlag will retire at the end of 2025 after eight years as CEO of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and a long and respected career as a vascular surgeon and health care leader.
The Freischlag Tower features a new adult emergency department that opened in April, along with 28 state-of-the-art operating rooms, 56 adult intensive care rooms, including trauma and cardiovascular ICU rooms, pre- and post-surgical units, multiple MRI, CT and X-ray machines and a new sterile processing department.
“The Freischlag Tower will transform the way we care for patients with traumatic injuries or critical conditions that need immediate treatment, allowing us to provide highly specialized, world-class care, but in a more convenient, accessible and healing space,” said Dr. David Zaas, president of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. “The naming this new clinical area in Dr. Freischlag’s honor reflects the visionary nature of her leadership and her incredible legacy and impact in this community – which we will proudly carry forward in our mission as the area’s only academic learning health system.”
Dr. Freischlag has led Wake Forest Baptist as CEO since May 2017 and served as dean of Wake Forest University School of Medicine from February 2018 to February 2023. Freischlag has been a practicing vascular surgeon for more than 38 years and has served as a leader in academic medicine at institutions across the nation for more than 32 years. She specializes in the treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome, which requires a specialized surgical procedure.
"It is an incredible honor to have this tower for our patients, our teammates, and our community named in my honor,” said Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO and chief academic officer at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, chief academic officer and executive vice president at Advocate Health and executive vice president for health affairs at Wake Forest University. “By opening these doors, we are taking a monumental step forward that allows us to significantly enhance our clinical capabilities, expand our educational and research opportunities and better meet the needs of our growing community. I couldn’t have imagined a more fulfilling way to close out my career with this outstanding team and build on the excellence of care that is our hallmark. I hope that this tower will always remind us of the heights we can reach when we work together."
Areas on all the floors will begin opening over the coming weeks and the Freischlag Tower will be fully operational by Fall 2025.
The general contractor is a joint venture between Brasfield & Gorrie and Frank L. Blum Construction Company and the architects are HKS and CPL.