Rex to build Holly Springs hospital

The move comes three years after the state Division of Health Service Regulation rejected a proposal from Winston-Salem-based Novant Health for a similar Holly Springs hospital.

"The residents of southern Wake County have long wanted and needed hospital services in their community," Rex President David Strong said in a statement.

Rex has a medical practice and a 9,000-square-foot outpatient facility in Holly Springs. The new Rex Holly Springs Hospital will be located on the same property near the intersection of N.C. Highway 55 and Avent Ferry Road, officials said.

When the hospital opens in late 2014, it will provide services like a birth center and cancer center for residents in southern Wake County, officials said.

"The state’s decision to build a hospital in Holly Springs means they’ve recognized the health care needs of our residents,” Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears said in a statement. “The citizens of southern Wake County, including Fuquay-Varina, Willow Springs (and) Angier, will have important health services closer to home.”

Regulators also approved Rex's plans to relocate 115 acute-care beds and two operating rooms from its flagship campus in west Raleigh so it can build a new patient tower and consolidate its heart and vascular services.

The state turned aside Rex's request for a 40-bed acute care hospital in Wakefield and 11 more beds at Rex Hospital. Instead, regulators awarded those beds to WakeMed.

WakeMed plans to put 29 new beds in its flagship campus in east Raleigh – it had sought 79 beds there – and the other 22 in its Cary hospital, a spokeswoman said.