Holy Springs, NC Pressing on Hospital

The southern Wake town keeps trying to convince the state that it needs its own.

The town of Holly Springs filed a petition Friday asking the state to add 42 new hospital beds in Wake County to its 2010 medical facilities plan.

The petition is the southern Wake town’s latest attempt to convince state regulators that its fast-growing population needs its own health-care facility. Just six months ago, regulators denied Novant Health’s request to build a $100 million community hospital in Holly Springs that would have included 41 beds and four operating rooms.

Novant has contested that decision, a move that has delayed WakeMed’s ability to move ahead with a $34 million women’s hospital in North Raleigh.

Jenny Mizelle, Holly Springs economic development director, said Novant officials told the town about a public hearing held Friday in Raleigh where it could ask the state to change the 2010 facilities plan.

“They alerted us to this as an opportunity,” she said.

But Mizelle said the town doesn’t care which health-care provider builds the new beds being requested.

“We’re just trying to bring health care to our community,” she said.

Each year, a new state medical facilities plan is published by the Medical Facilities Planning Section, which is part of the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation. The plan sets the number of beds, operating rooms, home health offices and other services that can be approved by the state’s Certificate of Need section.

The initial draft of the 2010 plan calls for Wake County to get three new operating rooms but no new acute-care beds.

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SOURCE: The News & Observer