MOCKSVILLE ó Davie County Hospital and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have again applied to the Certificate of Need Section of the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation to build a replacement hospital with obstetrical services in Davie.
This is the fourth Certificate of Need application for a replacement hospital in Davie County filed within the last year and is similar to the one withdrawn this spring. The application calls for the hospital to have 46 acute-care and four obstetrical beds, along with two operating rooms, an endoscopy room, a minor procedure room, physical therapy, radiology, lab and emergency services.
The proposed hospital would cost approximately $104 million and would be located on the same site at Interstate 40 and N.C. 801 in eastern Davie County as proposed in the other applications.
Donny Lambeth, interim president and chief operating officer of Baptist Hospital, said “We have submitted this application to make certain we are leaving no stone unturned in our effort to get the state’s permission to replace the existing Davie County Hospital.”
“We believe Davie County residents deserve obstetrical services in their county,” said William B. Applegate, M.D., interim president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.
Davie County Manager Terry Bralley said, “We can’t understand why Forsyth County can have four hospitals and a fifth on appeal and Davie County cannot have one modern hospital.” The site of the proposed hospital is accessible to nearly all residents of the county and is in an area designated for commercial development where highways are already being improved, he added.
The Certificate of Need Section will hold a public hearing on the application in September.
The state is considering the appeal of Davie County Hospital/Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center of the rejection to build an 81-bed hospital. In addition, the state is considering a second application that would have 50 acute-care beds but no obstetrical services.
A decision on that application is expected in August.