Wake Forest College Medical School was founded as a two-year medical school on the campus of
Wake Forest College in
Wake Forest, North Carolina, in 1902. The will of a president of
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. gave about $750,000 to move the medical school to Winston-Salem and make it a four-year institution. Named after its benefactor,
Bowman Gray School of Medicine opened in Winston-Salem in 1941, affiliating with N.C. Baptist Hospital to create "The Miracle on Hawthorne Hill".
Brenner Children's Hospital, a 144-bed "hospital within a hospital", opened in 1986. In 1997, the institutions realigned as Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. In 2011, as part of the institution's move to become a unified structure, the corporate entity was rebranded as Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Clinical operations throughout a 24-county service area in northwest North Carolina and southwest Virginia now fall under the umbrella of Wake Forest Baptist Health, and the academic component is now known as
Wake Forest School of Medicine. In 2002, Wake Forest Baptist began operating the Davie County Hospital in
Mocksville, which was built in 1956 and expanded in 1965 and 1974.
Davie Medical Center in
Bermuda Run opened Medical Plaza 1 in August 2013, and Medical Plaza 2 in October 2013. The second plaza added an emergency department and operating room, among other features. A $47 million, 78,220-square-foot 50-bed expansion opened April 3, 2017. Inpatient services were moved from the Mocksville location. On October 1, 2008,
Lexington Memorial Hospital affiliated with Wake Forest Baptist. Since then, the two institutions have helped each other with research and patient care. In July 2017, Wake Forest Baptist began a 30-year lease with
Wilkes Medical Center after an agreement with
North Wilkesboro. WFB and WMC had already been working together for nearly a decade, and decided to expand their services together. On October 25, 2017, Wake Forest Baptist and
High Point Regional Health System announced that Wake Forest Baptist would take over High Point Regional, a part of
UNC Health Care since 2013, by summer 2018. The change was touted as a way to encourage the growth of High Point Regional and expand its ability to care for patients. On April 10, 2019, Wake Forest Baptist and
Atrium Health in
Charlotte, North Carolina, signed a memorandum of understanding as the first step toward a partnership. On October 31 the companies said an agreement had been reached and, pending regulatory approval, the partnership would be completed March 31, 2020. At the time it was announced that a medical school in Charlotte could be built by 2021 or 2022. On October 9, 2020, the companies announced they would become one, with the name Atrium Health. More specific details about the medical school were revealed in February 2021, including plans for a seven-story tower, and on March 24, 2021, Atrium Health announced a 20-acre site at Baxter and McDowell streets. School of Medicine dean
Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag said construction would start in 2022. Charlotte was the largest city in the country without a four-year medical school. The Charlotte campus formally opened June 2, 2025. Effective August 18, 2021, the branding changed to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. On December 2, 2022, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health merged creating
Advocate Health ==Services==