Carolinas Medical Center


Carolinas Medical Center is an 874-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located in Charlotte, North Carolina, servicing the southern North Carolina region. Carolinas Medical Center is one of the region's only academic university-level teaching centers. The hospital is owned by the Atrium Health Health System and is the largest hospital in the system. Carolinas Medical Center is affiliated with the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Carolinas Medical Center is also an ACS desinated level I trauma center and has a helipad to handle medevac patients. Attached to the medical center is the Levine Children's Hospital that treats infants, children, adolescents, and young adults up to the age of 21.

History

The hospital was organized in 1940 as Charlotte Memorial Hospital on Blythe Boulevard in the Dilworth neighborhood. Since that time, the hospital has undergone several major expansions and bringing the licensed bed capacity to 874 beds.
In May 1970, the organ Transplant program began with the first cadaveric kidney transplant performed by Dr. Don Mullen and Dr. Dale Ensor. This was one of the first transplants in the USA done outside a medical school setting. A year later, Mullen and Ensor performed the first living related transplant.
Dr. Francis Robicsek performed the first heart transplant at Carolinas Medical Center in 1986.
In 2007, the multistory Levine Children's Hospital was completed and opened, making it the second largest children's hospital in the Southeastern United States, after Washington, D.C..
In 2010, the University of North Carolina School of Medicine established the Charlotte Campus of the UNC School of Medicine at Carolinas Medical Center. Students from UNC School of Medicine had been completing clinical rotations at Carolinas Medical Center for over 40 years prior.
On July 28, 2011, Becker's Hospital Review listed Carolinas Medical Center under 60 Hospitals with Great Orthopedic Programs.
Today, Carolinas Medical Center is the region's only Level 1 Trauma Center and part of Atrium Health, one of the largest public not-for-profit healthcare systems in the United States.