ehyman@newsobserver.com

Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care, left, and Bill Atkinson, President and CEO of WakeMed, talk before a press conference announcing an agreement between WakeMed Hospital and UNC Health Care Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at the N.C. Legislative Building.

RALEIGH -- State lawmakers announced Tuesday a cease-fire between WakeMed Hospital and UNC Health Care, bringing to a civil end an unseemly public battle that had landed at the legislature with WakeMed trying to buy its cross-town rival Rex Hospital.

With the harmony comes an unexpected boon for Wake County: a $30 million, 28-bed psychiatric facility UNC will build and operate, easing some of the charity care burdens WakeMed has carried for decades. Left alone is Rex Hospital, a UNC subsidiary that WakeMed tried to buy to level the playing field with UNC.

The public and often invective spat between the states hospital system and Wake Countys largest hospital generated a $750 million hostile takeover bid, high-dollar lobbying efforts and legislative hearings in the last year. Earlier this month, the lawmakers called the leaders of the warring UNC Health Care and WakeMed to say enough is enough, setting in motion a series of private meetings to reach an accord. Both sides sent key experts to exhaustive meetings overseen by a legislative staff attorney to Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Hendersonville. The leaders of UNC and WakeMed, however, were absent.

Sometimes leadership courage is about stepping back, WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said in an interview after the press conference. Everyone thinks you lead from the front, but sometimes, you need to get on the sidelines.

On Tuesday, Atkinson and UNC Health Care CEO Bill Roper stood near each other, smiling as state leaders offered their congratulations.

Lawmakers heralded the peace, saying both institutions brought quality and commitment to an ever fractured health care system.

(We) are celebrating the establishment of an expanded partnership that will positively affect patient care and the training of doctors in North Carolina for years to come, said Apodaca. We believe these two great institutions have more things in common than differences.

WakeMeds complaints

Continue reading here:

WakeMed and Rex Hospital reach settlement, ending public feud