Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health is drawing up plans for its flagship freestanding children's hospital.
The N.C. Children's Hospital is expected to cost more than $2 billion and create thousands of jobs, according to a Sept. 26 news release shared with Becker's. North Carolina lawmakers have approved an initial investment of $320 million toward the facility.
This facility will contain a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital, but is separate from the new pediatric behavioral health hospital UNC Health and the state plan to open in Butner, N.C., later this year.
The system aims to open the new hospital in the next eight to 10 years. Next steps include designating a location in North Carolina's Triangle Region, zeroing in on hospital design and launching a philanthropic fundraising campaign.
This is the first hospital of its kind in North Carolina and will be "comparable in clinical and academic scale to any of the top children's hospitals in the country," according to the news release.