Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provides a variety of community benefits to Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, and northwest North Carolina. Improving health in our community, state, and nation is part of the mission of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Forsyth County’s largest employer and the only academic learning health system in western North Carolina.
The benefits provided by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist take different forms - community outreach, education, research, financial assistance and many other unique efforts to help those in need. In the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2022, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $767.5 million in community benefits, as reported to the state of North Carolina and the federal government.
Here is the breakdown by category:
Unreimbursed care. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $540 million in estimated unreimbursed care in calendar year 2022, a $19.8 million increase over the previous year.
Financial Assistance. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $52.5 million in financial assistance in 2022.
Education and research. In 2022, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $148.9 million in education funding for medical students and other health care professionals and in research funding not covered by outside sources. This amount represents an increase of $15 million over the previous year and is due to increased faculty effort in basic science instruction as well as increased research expenses in the following areas: regenerative medicine, cancer, health care innovation, physiology and pharmacology, precision medicine, cancer biology, and clinical and translational science.
Community health improvement. In 2022, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $15.4 million in community health initiatives, operations, and donations. This included the health system’s FaithHealth care initiatives, Brenner FIT program, athletic trainer programs in Forsyth, Davidson, Guilford, Yadkin, Wilkes, Alleghany, and Surry County schools, pastoral care counseling through CareNet network, physicians’ community health access, community donations, direct patient assistance (including free prescription drugs), rapid response team, and hospice/palliative care services.
Additionally, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist provided $10.6 million in subsidized operations for their Downtown Health Plaza health program, the Bethesda and Southside health clinics, School Health Alliance initiative, supportive care and behavioral health service lines, patient transportation, and other direct patient assistance (including skilled nursing).