Atrium Health’s Charlotte area and Georgia operations continued to show robust financial power, reporting net income of $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2025. That was 18% more than the same period last year.
Such profitability is enabling projects such as a $450 million, 60-bed, four-story hospital project in Fort Mill in York County, South Carolina that Atrium’s board approved at a commissioners meeting today. The location wasn’t disclosed, but it is on land owned by Atrium, according to a presentation. Its expected opening in 2029 would mark Atrium’s first hospital in the fast-growing south Charlotte-area county.
The nine-month profit included operating income of $655 million, which was 29% greater than a year earlier. That reflected an operating margin of 6.2%, well ahead of its budget of 3.7%. That compares with a median 1.1% average for not-for-profit U.S. hospitals during the first half of this year, according to Fitch Ratings. Many hospital systems say they are facing increasing financial pressures.
Atrium’s investment income through Sept. 30 topped $782 million, compared with $691 million last year. That number ebbs and flows depending on performance of the stock and bond markets.
Revenue gained 13.5% to $10.5 billion, with officials citing strong gains in cardiac, cancer and orthopedics services.
Atrium’s revenue mostly comes from the Charlotte area, but includes the organization’s Georgia operations. The Atrium Health business makes up more than a third of parent organization Advocate Health, which had about $34.8 billion in revenue last year. Advocate includes operations in the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas, plus Winston-Salem-based Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health, which reports its results separately.
Advocate is the third-largest U.S. not-for-profit hospital operator, while Atrium Health is North Carolina’s biggest healthcare system. Advocate reported net income of nearly $2.9 billion in 2024 and $2.2 billion in 2023. Last week, the organization disclosed that CEO Gene Woods received total compensation of $25.8 million in 2024, versus $17 million in the previous year.
Atrium said it spent $650 million on capital projects during the first nine months, part of a $1.03 billion budget for the full year. The system is spending more than $1 billion on a new tower at its flagship campus in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood and the Pearl Innovation District that opened in the center city earlier this year. The tower is slated to open in 2027, officials said.
The system projected a 4.9% increase in revenue to $14.5 billion in 2026, aided by a 3.7% increase in rates. But it expects operating income to decline to $572 million, a 10.6% decrease from this year’s normalized budget. More than $1.03 billion of capital spending is expected next year in Atrium’s footprint.
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