By Healthcare Facilities Today

Construction is wrapping up on a $40 million, 86,500-square-foot hospital in Pineville, N.C., that is a joint venture between the Carolinas HealthCare System Rehabilitation and Carolinas Specialty Hospital — the first of its kind in Charlotte and North Carolina, according to an article in the Charlotte Business Journal.

Carolinas Rehabilitation will have 29 inpatient beds on the second floor of the new facility. It also will have an in-patient gym, therapy garden and a transitional living apartment that will simulate the home environment, according tot he article. Carolinas Specialty will operate as an independent 40-bed facility on the building's third and fourth floors.

Carolinas Specialty plans to move its patients into the facility on Sept. 11. The first Carolinas HealthCare System Rehabilitation patients are scheduled to be admitted in October.

Both entities will share space for admissions, radiology, education, dining and family services on the first floor.

Bringing together long-term acute care and inpatient rehabilitation is a natural fit, says Dan Dunmyer, chief executive of Carolinas Specialty Hospital. "This is the model, I suspect, of the future. You’re going to see more cooperation and collaboration nationwide."

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