Greensboro-based Cone Health will add several services – including urgent care, primary care and imaging – to its planned cancer center in Asheboro at a cost of $72 million.
Hospital officials held a “construction kickoff” event Thursday for the expansive building that will be called the Cone Health MedCenter Asheboro.
Hospital officials expect to open the MedCenter in November 2024. It will be the health network’s sixth facility using the MedCenter concept. Construction of the new MedCenter also comes at a time of expected growth for Randolph County. Toyota expects to employ about 2,100 workers when it opens a battery facility in Liberty in early 2025.
“This community will need more medical appointments, more urgent care and more exceptional health and wellness services,” says Cone Health President and CEO Dr. Mary Jo Cagle. “Cone Health has been part of Randolph County for decades. Adding a MedCenter will help meet the needs for this growing community for decades to come.”
The MedCenter is designed to bring combine health and wellness services in one place. A patient can have a doctor’s appointment, then walk down the hall for a blood test or ultrasound rather than having to drive elsewhere. The 51,500-square-foot MedCenter will also have a pharmacy. It will be located on a 60-acre site west of Interstate 74, south of Spero Road.
Chicago-based architectural firm Perkins and Will, which has an office in Charlotte, will design the building. Birmingham, Alabama-based Robins and Morton, which also has an office in Charlotte, is the general contractor.
“We have had many discussions with the people who live near the location,” says Cone Health Oncology Services Randolph County Market Lead Skip Hislop in a statement released by Cone Health. “They too, want to see high-quality health care close-by. And they want it to fit in and be part of the community. Our design will honor that.”
Cone Health and Randolph Health were partners in a cancer center at Randolph Hospital for more than 25 years. That partnership ended when Los Angeles-based American Healthcare Systems bought Randolph Health for $10.2 million in 2021.
As part of the unwinding of the agreement, Cone Health retained full ownership, but had to move the cancer center off the Randolph Hospital site.
Cone Health moved the medical oncology portion last year to Asheboro. Due to the nature of radiation oncology, it was agreed that portion of cancer services would remain at Randolph Health until a new facility was built. The new cancer center will again consolidate medical and radiation cancer services.