Healthcare

Rowan County is a regional hub for high-quality health care, advanced medical training and research. The healthcare industry is Rowan County’s second largest employer with over 20% of the population employed in health and social service occupations.

Comprehensive, Quality Healthcare

Most of the region’s health care is provided through several integrated health care delivery systems that operate hospitals and outpatient clinics.

The largest is Novant Health Rowan Medical Center, a not-for-profit healthcare leader offering a wide range of services in emergency, maternity, surgery, cancer, rehabilitation and other specialty care for residents of Rowan County and surrounding communities since 1936. Throughout the years, the hospital has evolved into a major medical campus, with 268 beds and an extensive outpatient services center

Novant operates primary and specialty care physician practices throughout Rowan County and surrounding communities. The Novant Health Rowan Medical Center is nationally accredited by The Joint Commission and nationally recognized for safety quality and leading-edge healthcare.

Novant Health Med Flight is strategically located at Novant Health Rowan Medical Center. It provides fast, safe air transportation for critically ill and injured patients, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. within 170 miles of Rowan County.

The WG Bill Hefner VA Medical Center has 438 authorized beds including an Extended Care Community Living Center. Hefner VA is a teaching hospital providing a full range of patient care services with state of the art technology and programs in education and research Primary and secondary inpatient health care are available to more than 287,000 veterans living in a 21-county area of the Central Piedmont Region of North Carolina. This includes the Charlotte area with over 100,000 veterans, and the Winston-Salem area with 65,000 veterans. With over 2300 staff members the VA Medical Center is one of Rowan County’s top employers.

Other health systems in the region include Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Educating the next generation of scientists and medical professionals

Since 2014, Novant Health’s Rowan Medical Center has served as a key teaching hospital for medical students of Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine. Novant Health Rowan Medical Center is a teaching hospital for Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine’s medical students. The clinical partnership includes training in the areas on primary care, family medicine, general surgery, OB/GYN, pediatrics, psychiatry and other critical services with an emphasis on the unique needs of underserved communities.

The Hefner VA has an ongoing affiliation with Wake Forest University School of Medicine, with a focus on resident involvement in primary care, dermatology, rehabilitation, ophthalmology, and psychiatry.

Rowan-Cabarrus Community College offers two-year degrees in biotechnology and nursing in their training center that is walking distance from all of the campus’ research centers.

The Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P2EP) is a one-of-a-kind, collaborative program that combines the expertise of leading scientists with the campus’ university and corporate partners to train undergraduate, masters and doctoral-level students in fields like plant genetics and bioinformatics.

Cutting Edge Health Research

The North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis is a 350-acre research center where corporations, universities and healthcare organizations have forged a public-private partnership that is transforming science at the intersection of human health, nutrition and agriculture.

Novel approaches to prevent and treat disease are emanating from the research centers at the NC Research Campus. The growing base of scientific knowledge combines new understandings of how nutrients, plant phytochemicals, the environment and lifestyle choices impact brain and fetal development, cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, fatty liver and other metabolic disorders.

Other research and product development focus areas include phytochemicals in fruits, vegetables, grains and herbs; exercise physiology; post-harvest physiology; population-based, genetic studies; and personalized nutrition.

Healthy Lifestyles

Rowan County is committed to improving health, fitness and overall activity. Organizations like the Department of Public Health and Healthy Rowan are working to shift Rowan County towards a culture of health and create a community where healthy living is the norm.

Healthy Rowan is a collaborative coalition of organizations working together to improve health outcomes in Rowan County. It seeks to utilize the collaborative strength of many community partners to identify and address health and quality of life issues in Rowan County. The coalition includes representatives and leaders from healthcare, government, business and industry, human services, community service agencies, medical service providers, educational institutions, the general population, and the faith community.

Healthy Rowan is working with all organizations to implement evidence-based interventions to address chronic disease and obesity in our community. They work across all sectors—early childcare, schools, businesses, senior living—to spark a transformation in Rowan County for increased physical activity and better access to healthier foods.

The annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. It measures vital health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income inequality, and teen births. See Rowan County results here.