“While the new facility will be a WakeMed entity, it will be part of our entire community’s concerted effort to provide more abundant, specialized inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance use care and services to the residents of our region.” “Mental health touches every life and there is a collective understanding that we must take action to both eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and support our growing population. “As the pandemic took its toll on our community’s families, we quickly realized that a 50-bed mental health hospital is not enough,” Gintzig said. Wolf said he expects the state to make a decision in January. "We believe our proposal will better serve future generations of patients across our fast-growing region." "UNC Health Rex is proposing a much more cost-effective plan to add capacity at our existing hospitals and meet increasing demand across Wake County," Wolf wrote in an email to WRAL News. UNC Health Rex's acute-care proposal competes with WakeMed's, Wolf said. Developing 36 more acute care beds at UNC Health Rex Hospital in Raleigh.Proposing to renovate the seventh floor of the UNC Health Rex Holly Springs Hospital to add nine acute care beds.The proposed operating rooms will be developed in existing space on the second floor in UNC Health Rex Hospital’s main operating room surgical suite. The proposal to develop two additional operating rooms at its main campus in Raleigh.However, UNC Health's Director of News Alan Wolf said UNC Health Rex has submitted three proposals of its own to the state. “So, we’re pretty optimistic that this project is going to be positively perceived.” “We’re pretty optimistic that the region, the area needs it and the state needs it,” Shrum said. WakeMed Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Rick Shrum said WakeMed would consider an appeal process if not approved by the state. Pending state approval, WakeMed would begin its groundbreaking by fall 2024 and it would open in 2027. The proposed Garner Hospital would be located at White Oak Road and Timber Drive East. WakeMed leaders are hoping to start construction in fall 2024 and it would open in 2027, pending state approval. According to WakeMed, the location for the mental health hospital is likely in eastern Wake County. WakeMed previously received 50 mental health beds from the state, and, with Monday’s CON filing, it is requesting 100 more. These two new facilities will help us do that.” “We have to plan today to meet the needs of an even larger community in the future. It’s a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Gintzig said. “We know our region will continue to grow. Since the start of the pandemic, WakeMed said its emergency departments have seen a 25% increase in these diagnoses, which is an increase of 40,000 visits a year. WakeMed said that in addition to the community’s unprecedented growth, area hospital emergency departments and mental health facilities continue to see dramatic increases in the number of adults and children suffering mental health and substance use crises. Gintzig and other WakeMed leaders said they expect the state to take about six months to review the proposals. “People are finally recognizing that mental health is as critical to a community’s health as is the physical health,” said WakeMed Health and Hospitals President and CEO Donald Gintzig at a Monday afternoon media availability.
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