Duke to move wellness center

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WakeMed's network grows

WakeMed has won regulatory approval to expand its North Raleigh facility and build new medical centers in Garner and Raleigh's Brier Creek area.

Officials with Wake County's largest hospital system are betting on increasing demand as the economy recovers and the region's population grows.

Expansions by other Triangle health systems also are continuing during the downturn, as UNC Health Care System and Duke University Health System request state approval to add services and win new customers. UNC in April proposed a $227 million, 68-bed hospital in Hillsborough.

Deal may leave part of Dix open till 2011

Despite long-standing plans to shut down Dorothea Dix Hospital in February, Wake County appears close to a deal to keep a small part of the aging state psychiatric facility open until 2011.

In an agreement expected to win approval from Wake commissioners Monday, the county will pay the state up to $5.3 million a year to retain up to 32 psychiatric beds in a building on the Dix campus.

The temporary unit would stay open until a planned Wake County crisis facility and an addition to Holly Hill, a private mental hospital in Raleigh, are complete.

Hospitals want to add ORs

Rex Healthcare wants state permission to add two operating rooms at its outpatient clinic being built in Holly Springs.

The Raleigh-based hospital system also wants to add one operating room at its main campus as part of a bigger plan to expand its cancer care.

State officials who control medical expansions have ruled that Wake County will need three new ORs to handle increasing demand. Duke Raleigh Hospital also intends to request the ORs as it looks to expand services at its North Raleigh facility. State officials will rule later this year.

Cancer care boom makes N.C. a beacon for patients

His oncologist was out of ideas, and Duane Wait was low on hope.

So the South Carolinian looked 240 miles north, where the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a new clinical trial, beckoned.

Now, Wait drives more than four hours to Durham once a month for prostate cancer treatment and testing.

Duke offers $596M hospital plan

Duke University Health System has proposed the biggest expansion at its flagship hospital in a quarter century to keep pace with a growing and aging population.

The health system is asking the state for permission to spend $596 million on a 548,420-square-foot, seven-story building that will increase its capacity to serve patients.

It also could serve as an economic catalyst for the region. Duke expects 1,000 new jobs when the facility is complete, likely by 2013.