Carolinas HealthCare System began on October 7, 1940, when the four-story, 300-bed Charlotte Memorial Hospital opened its doors on land purchased by the Board of St. Peter’s Hospital.

Two years later an additional four stories were added to the original hospital, and the following year, the Charlotte Memorial Hospital Authority was created by the NC General Assembly.

In 1948, when a polio epidemic swept the Carolinas, the hospital authority added a 120-bed unit to care for afflicted children, and expanded again in 1958 by adding a new 250-bed A-Wing.

By 1962, the Charlotte Memorial Hospital Authority had become the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority and had added Charlotte Rehabilitation Hospital to the system. Expansion in services and technology continued over the years, and in 1974, Charlotte Memorial Hospital’s name was changed to Charlotte Memorial Hospital and Medical Center to reflect the comprehensive nature of the facility’s patient services and health education.

The 1980s and 1990s witnessed explosive expansion and entrepreneurial activity for this organization which is today known as Carolinas HealthCare System. During these two decades, University Memorial Hospital was built in north Mecklenburg County, the 288-bed Rush S. Dixon Tower was constructed, the Children’s Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center opened, a seven-story surgery tower was completed, Mercy Hospital and Mercy Hospital South were acquired in 1995, and numerous other leased/managed facilities and services have been added.

And advances in technology have paralleled this growth. In 1985, the world’s first known application of lasers to treat heart disease was performed at Charlotte Memorial Hospital (later renamed Carolinas Medical Center). Charlotte Memorial was also the first hospital in the region to offer a sophisticated heart-lung system for newborns, the first to provide emergency medical flight service, and the first to offer PET scan services. In addition, physicians at Carolinas Medical Center performed the region’s first stem cell transplant and the state’s first surgery to restore function in the paralyzed hand of a paraplegic.

Today, with over 3000 licensed beds and approximately 12,000 employees, Carolinas HealthCare System is the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas and one of the largest publicly owned systems in the nation.