UNC Health Care announced plans to add a new surgical tower on the Chapel Hill campus.
The addition will replace aging operating rooms that are a tight fit for modern surgical teams, according to Chief Operating Officer Brian Goldstein.
"The goal is for our staff, and our surgeons, and our anesthesiologists to have work space that allows them to take advantage of the way we train doctors in 2016," said Goldstein.
The five-to-seven story tower will go up in front of Memorial Hospital. Goldstein say it will offer a fresh face to a building first constructed in the 1950s.
"We're designing that space with efficiency in mind," he said. "We're using principles recently developed in industry that have been adopted to health care that allow staff, the surgeons, and the equipment to be used in the most efficient way possible."
Goldstein noted the new building's proximity to the parking deck will make it easier for surgical patients and their families to come and go.
"This building will be closer to the parking deck than our existing operating rooms, so particularly for those folks who are coming and leaving the same day, it'll be a much better experience because it will be easier to get from the parking deck to the building." said Goldstien. "They'll be able to have a drop-off specifically for this building."
The General Assembly has given UNC Hospitals permission to issue up to $250 million in bonds, most of which will fund the surgical tower. Construction is slated to begin next year. Officials expect the facility to be open by 2021.