State approves application to replace Davie County Hospital

Friday, August 29, 2008 3:00 AM  |  Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend | Staff report

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center announced Thursday that the state has approved its application to replace Davie County Hospital in Mocksville with a new facility in eastern Davie County.

The application, or certificate of need, approved by the state is for a hospital with 50 acute-care beds, Baptist Medical Center said in an e-mail. The application does not include obstetrical services. However, another application including obstetrics remains under state review and the hospital said it will continue seeking approval of that plan.

In filings with the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation, Baptist says the hospital would cost $101 million to build and would open in 2012.

At the same time, Forsyth Medical Center, a Novant Health facility, is seeking state approval of a plan to build a $105 million, 50-bed hospital in Clemmons, just a few miles from the site Baptist proposes for its new Davie hospital.

The public comment period ends Tuesday for the Forsyth application and the Baptist proposal that includes obstetrics, both of which were filed with the state in July. A public hearing for both is scheduled for Sept. 18 at the River Oaks Community Church in Clemmons.

Though the state calls those two proposals "competing applications," Thursday's e-mail from Baptist said the application approved this week is not competitive with Forsyth, which did not submit an application during the period that Baptist did for its hospital without obstetrics. The state received that application in March.

Both health-care providers had submitted earlier competing applications for regional hospitals in Davie County. Baptist had proposed building an 81-bed replacement hospital in eastern Davie. Forsyth sought approval of a 50-bed facility.

The state denied those initial applications in February.

Officials from both medical centers said they had strong community support and appealed the denials.

Baptist Medical Center operates the current Davie County Hospital. Forsyth parent Novant merged with Rowan Regional Medical Center in January.