By Michelle Crouch
Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger
The board that oversees Atrium Health attracted an unusually rowdy crowd Tuesday afternoon as protestors from two groups packed the room with signs and medical equipment, and a man who tried to speak was escorted out by police.
It was a stark contrast to typical Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority meetings, which are usually polite affairs attended by only one or two reporters.
Activists from Redress Charlotte, a social justice group, showed up with crutches, walkers, neck braces and other medical devices, symbolic references to the “healing” they said Atrium owes the community. Some carried signs that read “Healing starts with housing” and “Housing is healthcare.”
Although the hospital authority is a government entity that must hold open meetings, it doesn’t allow public comment.
Greg Jarrell, senior campaign organizer with Redress, said the group wants Atrium to follow through on the affordable housing promises it made in 2021 when it secured $75 million in public money for The Pearl, its medical innovation district that opened last summer.
Atrium CEO Gene Woods promised on-site and off-site housing when Atrium presented its proposal for the development to the Charlotte City Council in 2021. The details included development of affordable apartments and a separate 14-acre land donation on North Tryon Street for 400 more units. So far, none of the housing has been built, the land hasn’t been donated and a Charlotte Ledger/NC Health News report found that a city contract doesn’t require it.
“Atrium has broken its word to the city and the county,” Jarrell said before the meeting. “The healing begins with honoring those promises.”
Atrium has said it is meeting its contractual obligations, it is working with a developer to include affordable units at The Pearl, and it has placed deed restrictions on the North Tryon Street site.
The Pearl sits on land that was once part of Brooklyn, a vibrant Black community that was razed in the 1960s for urban renewal.
Out-of-town protesters with an inflatable pig
Outside the building, a group of union representatives and maintenance workers from two Chicago-area hospitals run by Atrium’s parent company Advocate Health lined the sidewalk with signs and props, including a giant inflatable “CEO” pig in a vest holding a sack of cash. (Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods took home $25.8 million in 2024.)
They said Advocate has refused to recognize and negotiate with newly formed unions amid what they described as worsening working conditions.
The Atrium board doesn’t oversee those hospitals, though several members also sit on Advocate’s board.
When a reporter asked for comment, Advocate Health responded with a statement that said in part, “We respect our teammates’ right to consider union representation or refuse it and are committed to fostering a collaborative and supportive work environment, in accordance with all laws and regulations.”
Inside, after a financial presentation, a member of the group stood up and said, “You guys seem to be doing pretty well financially. It doesn’t seem like any of this money is going toward workers.”
After the chair reminded him that the board doesn’t allow public comment, he continued talking and refused to sit back down. Police escorted him out.
Atrium’s 2025 net income already at $1.4 billion
Also at the meeting, the board:
· Allocated $450 million for a new hospital in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The planned 200,000-square-foot, four-story hospital would open with 60 beds in 2029, alongside a separate 70,000-square-foot medical office building. The board did not specify the project’s exact location. The hospital authority is restricted by North Carolina state law from building new hospitals more than 10 miles outside the Mecklenburg County line, but those rules don’t apply in other states.
· Nominated three new members. The 24-member board unanimously nominated 10 members to its board, but only three would be new: Steve Smoot, president of Advocate Health’s North Carolina and Georgia division; Chris Jackson, CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont; and David Sheffer, a local investor who helped grow MyEyeDr from 35 local clinics to more than 800 locations nationwide with more than $1 billion in revenue.
Under state statute, the board’s nominees must be approved by Mecklenburg County commissioners chair Mark Jerrell. Jarrell of Redress Charlotte said before the meeting that the group’s members would meet with Jerrell on Dec. 3 to encourage him to push Atrium to include more community-minded individuals on its board.
· Reported record revenue and income so far this year. Atrium is again exceeding its own budget expectations, with $10.5 billion in revenue and $1.4 billion in net income, or profit, for the first nine months of 2025. That means the system has already surpassed the $1.31 billion in net income it earned in all of 2024.
Those figures do not include revenue from Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health or from hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin that joined with Atrium in 2022 to create Advocate Health, the country’s third-largest public hospital system. Advocate reported about $35 billion in revenues in 2024.
This article is part of a partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and North Carolina Health News to produce original health care reporting. You can support this effort with a tax-deductible donation.
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I have attended these meetings off and on for years, desiring to observe their board structure and function, I have multiple questions (I always do!). I asked why there is not representation from patients and community members on this board. The answer was that “several board members have been patients”. I guarantee their experience was nothing like yours or mine.
This indicates to me they should reassess board structure. Optics are important, and these send a negative message. There seems to be little interest in our community in general.
This is a powerful piece – it shines a light on how Atrium Health stands at a crossroads, with its record profits on paper but persistent failures to deliver on vital community promises. The protestors’ message, “healing starts with housing”, speaks volumes about how health outcomes are inseparable from stable, affordable living. I hope this sets off real accountability: high revenues shouldn’t excuse broken promises to the community.