At last, a hospital for Holly Springs comes into focus

Since UNC REX Healthcare first considered building a hospital in Holly Springs more than a decade ago, the town’s population has doubled to about 35,000 people. So hospital leaders have been making their rounds in southern Wake County this month to gauge which services are most in demand now.

At a forum Wednesday at Holly Springs Town Hall, some residents asked about the possibility of an oncology department to serve cancer patients. Others suggested a hospital bus system for geriatric patients or others who lack access to transportation.

Tom Williams, vice president of ambulatory care, said he expects the hospital will place a particular emphasis on OB-GYN services and labor and delivery.

“There are a lot of young families in southern Wake County,” Williams said. “Everyone from this side of town has to go to Cary and Raleigh, and if you’ve driven up (N.C.) 55, you know what a hassle that is.”

The $70 million, 145,000-square-foot hospital is set to open in late 2020 near REX’s medical office buildings at the corner of N.C. 55 and Avent Ferry Road.

Residents have been waiting a long time for this.

Years ago, REX and Winston-Salem-based Novant Health both submitted applications to the state to build a hospital in Holly Springs, setting off a lengthy legal dispute. REX secured its certificate for a 50-bed hospital in 2014, nine years after the process began.

The project was sidetracked while REX turned its attention toward a $235 million heart and vascular center in Raleigh. In Holly Springs, traffic studies and other behind-the-scenes work took longer than expected, said hospital spokesman Alan Wolf.

The hospital held a community meeting in February 2014 to ask residents what services they wanted REX to provide, but “three years is a long time, especially in a fast-growing region like southern Wake County,” Wolf said.

Medical needs vary from place to place, Williams said, and feedback from residents often pushes providers to make geographically specific investments.

“When we did open forums in Knightdale, one of the things we learned was there was a need for wound care and hyperbaric chambers,” Williams said. “Most people from eastern Wake and Nash and Franklin counties were driving up to two hours for hyperbaric medicine, for wounds that wouldn’t heal. So we put in two hyperbaric chambers, and they stay busy.”

Speedy access to care has been a concern of some Holly Springs residents, who see the area’s growth and the traffic that accompanies it as a potential health hazard. At public hearings about new developments, some have said they fear additional traffic will slow ambulance response times.

“We’ve been working very hard on one of the last remaining challenges in Holly Springs – to get to where you don’t have to leave unless you want to,” said Mayor Dick Sears. “That’s very important to me, but the hospital has been a major challenge.”

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 4:24 PM with the headline "At last, a hospital for Holly Springs comes into focus."