The Medical Center is a regional referral center, providing complete patient care for an area of nearly five million people. It also is an institution devoted to continuing achievement in medical research.
The learning environment of the Medical Center fosters the development of knowledge, attitudes and skills upon which a rewarding professional life can be based.
The house officer at North Carolina Baptist Hospital should find the opportunities for learning to be challenging. A wealth of unusual problems as well as the more common diseases are presented by approximately 29,380 patients admitted annually to the hospital. Inpatient care averages more than 202,500 bed days a year. The hospital’s outpatient department and Wake Forest University Physicians Clinics record more than 509,900 patient visits annually. An active emergency room treats more than 45,400 people each year.
This patient mix serves to challenge the intellect and, at the same time, allows the development of specific skills which will serve the house officer well later in practice.
The house officer also serves as a teacher, supervising medical students on the wards and in the outpatient clinics. Research opportunities are provided to the house officer in his or her field of special interest.
The Coy C. Carpenter Library of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, conveniently located for house officers to use, contains extensive collections in all of the medical and surgical specialties and the basic sciences. The collection totals more than 145,000 volumes, 2,000 medical and related scientific journals and more than 2,500 audiovisuals.
Daily on-line access to MEDLINE and TOXLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s computerized bibliographic services, as well as various scientific data bases offered through BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval System) and the DIALOG system of Lockheed Information Services, is provided. Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), a self-instructional system with access to data bases, is also available.
North Carolina Baptist Hospital assumed an obligation to train health workers at the time it was chartered in 1923. Until it became affiliated with the then named Bowman Gray School of Medicine in 1941, nurses were the only students. Today, in addition to providing quality education for medical students, the Medical Center is preparing students for careers in the various allied health fields, including physician assistants, medical technologists, and nurse anesthetists.
The Medical Center recently completed another major expansion effort that added three facilities and brought total beds to 880. That expansion came on the heels of the largest health-related expansion program ever undertaken in North Carolina, which more than doubled the space available for research and greatly expanded patient care facilities. The newest buildings include (see top of next column):
Ardmore Tower, a seven-story, 286,000 square foot building completed in 1996. It houses the Emergency Department and the area’s only Level One Trauma Center, central kitchens for dietary, a large cafeteria, and a 35-bed day hospital. The project also included a major expansion of North Tower, primarily four inpatient units.
J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation, a five-story, 210,000 square foot facility completed in 1997. This new facility houses the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging, the only program of its kind in the world that offers acute care for the elderly, rehabilitation, geriatric psychiatry, and transitional (subacute) care–all under one roof. In the near future, the center will open a geriatric day hospital, where elderly patients will receive medical care during the day and return home at night. The building includes 128 beds in six inpatient units, including psychiatry and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
CompRehab Plaza, a three-story, 214,000 square foot facility on Miller Street north of Cloverdale. The main floor includes traumatic brain injury day treatment, spinal cord injury day treatment, stroke/neuro-rehabilitation, sports medicine, hand rehabilitation, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, pain control/pain management, work hardening and back rehabilitation.
Under construction is the Center for Research on Human Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention, an 11-story, 240,000 square foot facility that will house basic science laboratories, clinical trials and population studies. The Nutrition Education Wing is open and includes a 200-seat conference center, an expansion of Carpenter Library and headquarters for the Northwest Area Health Education Center. The shell of the main building is complete, and construction is under way on a transgenic animal facility on the sixth floor.
The earlier projects included the Janeway Clinical Sciences Building, a 12-story, 311,340 square foot doctors’ office building completed in 1991, where virtually all 
outpatient visits occur; North Tower, a 15-story, 404,096 square foot bed tower completed in 1989 that houses critical care and coronary units on three floors and Brenner Children’s Hospital on two floors; six additional floors atop the Hanes Research Building completed in 1988, providing 130,000 square feet of space for Cancer Biology, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arteriosclerosis Research Program, Molecular Genetics Program, and Inflammation Research Program; and the MRI Building, a four-story, 66,410 square foot building completed in 1987 that includes three MRI units, PET Center, CommView (filmless radiography) and teleconferencing center, Department of Public Health Sciences, and hospital business offices.
North Carolina Baptist Hospital is ranked among the nation’s best hospitals in ten of 16 specialties by U.S. News & World Report: cardiology (20th), geriatrics (32nd), neurology (19th), rheumatology (38th), urology (35th), otolaryngology (29th), orthopaedics (40th), cancer (49th), and gynecology (41st). A separate listing placed Wake Forest University School of Medicine 6th in the country in geriatric medicine and 13th in primary care medicine.
In all, the Medical Center operates 1,240 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds, including Hoots Memorial Hospital in Yadkinville, and has 23 affiliates throughout the region. In addition, a network of 16 Aegis Family Health Centers now has 69 primary care physicians and mid-level practitioners in six counties of Northwest North Carolina.
Please contact the House Staff Office with any questions or concerns.