WakeMed ‘whole health campus’ will include two new hospitals in one place
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- WakeMed will build a 45-bed acute hospital and a 150-bed mental health hospital on a single Garner campus.
- Campus integrates physical and psychiatric care to streamline diagnosis, treatment and transitions.
- WakeMed plans $125M hospital; commits $75M and seeks $50M via Courage to Confront Crisis campaign.
WakeMed will soon break ground on a new campus in Garner that will put two new hospitals under one roof.
One will be a 45-bed acute care hospital, where people will be treated for heart attacks, broken bones and other physical conditions.
The other will be the 150-bed WakeMed Mental Health & Well-Being Hospital, where people will be treated for depression, anxiety and other psychiatric issues.
Together, the two hospitals will make up what WakeMed calls its “whole health campus” on 53 acres near the intersection of White Oak Road and Timber Drive East. It’s a recognition that physical and mental health are often interrelated, says Dr. Micah Krempasky, chief medical officer of WakeMed Mental Health & Well-Being.
“We as human beings embody mental, physical and spiritual health needs,” Krempasky said in an interview. “And so to separate them into different hospitals, different campuses, different lines of treatment, just didn’t make sense.”
Integrating physical and mental health facilities is a relatively new but increasingly common practice for hospital systems.
Duke Health opened a 42-bed behavioral health center at Duke Regional Hospital four years ago, and psychiatry is embedded in UNC’s Neurosciences Hospital at the flagship medical center in Chapel Hill. NC Children’s Hospital, a joint project of Duke and UNC planned for Apex, will include a 103-bed behavioral health center for children and adolescents.
But in many places, including Wake County, in-patient mental health treatment has long been separate from traditional medical hospitals, often in out-of-the-way places.
“You feel like you’re tucked away, something to be ashamed of,” Krempasky said. “And we wanted to make sure that that’s definitely not the aura that we give. We want our campus to be somewhere that when you arrive you feel you’re coming to a place of healing, just as you do with your physical health.”
Unlike psychiatric hospitals of decades ago, where patients were held for years in many cases, the average stay at WakeMed Mental Health & Well-Being Hospital will be five to seven days, Krempasky said.
“It’s stabilizing the acute phase of illness and getting support, resources and a treatment plan in place so you can get back home with your family where you’re more comfortable,” she said.
Mental health hospital beds badly needed
More than 1,500 people a month come into WakeMed emergency rooms and hospitals needing mental health care, Krempasky said. Only about half of those who need in-patient psychiatric care can find a place in the area that can take them, she said, and often only after days or weeks of waiting.
The new hospital will help reduce the shortage of places to treat people with mental illness, said Mark Simon, executive director of NAMI Wake County, the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. But sharing space with a medical hospital is also important, Simon said, because so often people seeking help with mental health issues also have physical ones and vice versa.
“I think it will be a lot easier to coordinate care, because physically the locations are combined,” he said. “It will be easier to communicate and go from one type of health care to another.”
Last year, WakeMed took over operation of WakeBrook, a 28-bed inpatient behavioral health center in Raleigh owned by Wake County. WakeBrook will continue to be a standalone facility off Sunnybrook Road near WakeMed’s main campus.
WakeMed sought permission from the state to build the 150-bed mental health hospital three years ago and initially thought it would be located somewhere in Knightdale. It soon decided to integrate the new hospital with the planned Garner acute care hospital, as part of a 220-acre mixed-use district planned by the Town of Garner and a developer.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 6. The hospitals are expected to begin accepting patients in early 2029.
WakeMed expects the new mental health hospital will cost about $125 million. The health system is prepared to spend $75 million of its own money, but hopes to raise $50 million in donations. It has launched the Courage to Confront Crisis campaign to inspire donors and has already received pledges of $32 million, said WakeMed spokeswoman Kristin Kelly.
The acute care hospital is expected to cost $214 million, Kelly said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
