Atrium Health, formerly Carolinas HealthCare System, is a hospital network with more than 70,000 employees and part of Advocate Aurora Health. It operates 40 hospitals, 7 freestanding emergency departments, over 30 urgent care centers, and more than 1,400 care locations in the American states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. It provides care under the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist name in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, region, Atrium Health Navicent in the Macon, Georgia area, and Atrium Health Floyd in the Rome, Georgia area. Atrium Health offers pediatric, cancer, and heart care, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Legally, Atrium Health is The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, a municipal hospital authority established under North Carolina's Hospital Authorities Act (North Carolina General Statutes chapter 131E, part 2). The authority is governed by a self-perpetuating board of commissioners which nominates new commissioners to fill its own vacancies; the chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners can approve or veto those nominations but not make nominations of her own. History In 1876, Jane Wilkes leads the effort to establish St. Peter's Episcopal Hospital, originally called Charlotte Home and Hospital, in Charlotte's Fourth Ward. Charlotte Memorial Hospital opens in 1940, replacing St. Peter's Hospital, whose remaining patients are transferred to Charlotte Memorial on October 7. In 1943, Charlotte Memorial Hospital takes on a new legal status, known officially as the Charlotte Memorial Hospital Authority. This name was changed in 1961 to Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority. Charlotte Memorial Hospital Authority assumes ownership and management of Good Samaritan Hospital, the city's only hospital providing non-emergency care to racial minority patients. Charlotte Memorial Hospital adopts the first graphic version of its now-familiar "Tree of Life" logo in 1982. Charlotte Memorial Hospital changes its name to Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in 1990, and CMC is designated as one of North Carolina's five Academic Medical Center Teaching Hospitals. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority begins using the name "Carolinas Healthcare System" in 1996. In 2019, CMC underwent the system-wide rebrand and is now Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center. In 2020, Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health merged. In July 2021 Floyd Health of Rome, Georgia agreed to become a part of the Atrium system, as Atrium Health Floyd. Atrium agreed in May 2022 to merge with Advocate Aurora Health, assuming the Advocate brand, but based at Atrium's headquarters. This merger was completed