A new 50-bed acute care hospital facility will be built to serve about 100,000 residents in Harnett County, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Saturday.

“The construction of this hospital with (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds will provide needed medical services to the residents of Harnett County, and in the surrounding area,” Vilsack said in a news release.

Harnett Health Systems Inc. in Lillington has been selected to receive a $25 million loan through U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development’s Community Facilities Loan Program to construct a hospital which will provide emergency, general, acute-care and surgical services.

The new medical facility will be on the Brightwater Science and Technology Campus. In addition, the Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital Facility in Dunn, which is part of Harnett Health Systems Inc., will be upgraded to provide to improve radiology, laboratory and cardiology services, Vilsack said.

In addition to the $25 million in Recovery Act loan funds that USDA Rural Development is providing to fund the Harnett Health System’s Central Campus Facility, the recipient will leverage $72.1 million from other sources, Vilsack said.