WakeMed's top executive is warning leaders at the UNC Health Care System not to let public opinions sway their decision as they weigh his $750 million buyout offer for Rex Healthcare.

A UNC Health committee this week began a review of WakeMed's takeover bid for Rex by setting up a website to collect public comments on the proposed deal, which would combine Wake County's largest hospitals.

"This is a decision that has to get a hard look whether people like it not," WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said in a phone interview.

"It's not difficult to find a lot of people to come down on any side of an issue," he added. "You don't want to dismiss those opinions, but you don't want to forget that this is a serious business transaction and not just an emotional issue."

Meanwhile, WakeMed also is urging doctors, patients and others to let UNC Health know that they support its offer to buy Rex, which was announced in early May. In e-mails and an online memo, WakeMed is asking people to share comments at the feedback website set up by UNC Health.

The UNC Health Care System's board announced this afternoon that it formed a committee to review WakeMed's offer to buy its Raleigh subsidiary Rex Healthcare for $750 million.

UNC Health officials reiterated that they aren't interested in selling Rex, but will review the hostile takeover bid "in accordance with our fiduciary responsibility."

The committee is expected to review WakeMed's proposal for several weeks and then make a recommendation to the full board. The committee includes D. Jordan Whichard, who will be chairman, as well as board members Lisa Fischbeck, Andrew Greganti, Dale Jenkins, James Speed and UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp.

"We strongly believe that Rex is an integral part of UNC Health Care," said UNC Health board chairman Richard Krasno, in a prepared statement.

WakeMed leaders are urging UNC officials to begin negotiations on their hostile $750 million bid to buy rival Raleigh hospital Rex Healthcare.

In a letter delivered Wednesday to UNC president Tom Ross, WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson and chairman Tom Oxholm wrote that they want to close the acquisition "on or before" Dec. 31.

"We think it could be done by the close of the year, assuming everyone wants it to happen and we put teams in place on both sides to make it happen," Atkinson said in a phone interview today.

"We hope the state of North Carolina and UNC will look at this in a timely and fair and serious manner," he added. "We have a very viable proposal and it could be a big plus to the state of North Carolina economically."

Still, a sale is far from certain.

UNC officials have made clear that while they will review WakeMed's offer, they're not interested in selling Rex, which is a foundation of the UNC Health Care System's expansion strategy in Wake County. Ross had recently requested more information from WakeMed, which made the unsolicited offer to buy Rex last month.

WakeMed faces a Friday deadline to provide more information about its $750 million offer to buy rival Raleigh hospital Rex Healthcare.

WakMed made its hostile takeover offer last month in a letter to Thomas Ross, president of the UNC system, which has owned Rex since 2000. But that offer included "insufficient information" to evaluate the proposal, Ross wrote in a recent letter responding to WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson.

Ross is seeking additional data, including how WakeMed will pay for the acquisition, the identity of a "reputable" investment bank advising WakeMed on the deal, commitments regarding retention of Rex employees, and how "such a transaction would comply with Federal anti-trust laws."

Ross wants more information by Friday. "If I receive no response by that date, I will assume the offer is not a serious one and will deem it withdrawn," he wrote.

WakeMed spokeswoman Heather Monackey said officials are working on a written response and expect to have it ready this week.

WakeMed leaders delivered their official $750 million offer to buy rival hospital Rex Healthcare to UNC president Thomas Ross this morning.

WakeMed contends that buying its cross-town rival Rex from the UNC Health Care System would help improve patient care in Wake County and beyond, reduce costs and provide a much-needed cash infusion for the parent UNC system and the state. WakeMed is also trying to defend its Wake County turf from what it's said are "predatory" expansion tactics by UNC Health.

But the hostile takeover bid faces tough hurdles. UNC Health and Rex officials say they're not interested in a sale. Such a deal could raise antitrust concerns.

And while WakeMed has been seeking support for a deal from Gov. Bev Perdue and state lawmakers, several legislators said this morning that they don't think selling Rex will solve the state's financial problems.

Senate leader Phil Berger said he has not looked at all the implications, but "it's something we need to be very careful about."

"There are a number of folks in the Senate who think it's a bad idea," said the Eden Republican. "That proposal would have a ways to go in the Senate."

Nearly two years after winning regulatory approval for Wake County's fifth hospital, WakeMed is moving ahead with plans to expand its medical campus in North Raleigh.

The Raleigh-based health system postponed construction of WakeMed North Hospital when the economy cooled and officials turned their attention to other expansion projects, including a $99 million patient tower and children's hospital at its main campus.

WakeMed will announce today that it expects to break ground on the 61-bed hospital focused on women's services this fall and open it in late 2013.

"We shuffled several projects last year, but the economy is coming around, we think," said WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson. "The timing is very good" because the weaker construction market has reduced costs for materials and labor.

The CEOs at WakeMed and the UNC Health Care System met privately in Raleigh this week, the first meeting since the two health-care titans began an unusual, public brawl last month.

WakeMed accused UNC Health of using "predatory" tactics to compete for physicians and patients in the fast-growing Wake County medical market. WakeMed submitted a formal request for financial information and other records related to UNC's strategy.

UNC Health denies the charges, but insists it can't sit out of Wake County as changes and consolidation reshape the health-care landscape.

Officials, including WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson, WakeMed Chairwoman Billie Redmond and UNC Health CEO Bill Roper, met for about an hour and a half on Monday afternoon.

WakeMed today submitted a formal request for financial statements and other records from UNC Health, to determine if the system has been using public money to "shift services and gain an unfair competitive advantage over WakeMed, other hospitals and physician practices throughout the community."

WakeMed, which is trying to protect its position as Wake County's largest hospital system, claims that recent actions by UNC and its its Raleigh subsidiary Rex Healthcare will drive up medical costs for consumers, and do little to improve care in the Triangle. That includes recent affiliations with local physician practices, and proposed expansions at Rex's main Raleigh campus.

“WakeMed made the request due to numerous recent transactions by UNC Health Care which have raised serious public-policy questions,” said WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson, in a prepared statement. “Specifically, the records request is to determine if UNC Health Care and Rex Healthcare are improperly using taxpayer dollars to compete with WakeMed and other health care institutions by investing in physician practices and other facilities.”

UNC and Rex officials have said that such moves will provide needed services to a growing population. They also say that the federal health overhaul is spurring such actions to improve cost and quality.

Wake County's largest health system has recruited a new No. 2 executive from a Greensboro hospital.

WakeMed announced today that it has hired Tom Gettinger, president of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, as its new chief operating officer. He will report to CEO Bill Atkinson.

Gettinger, 46, replaces Deborah G. Friberg, who left WakeMed in January to join a Milwaukee hospital. Gettinger joined the Moses Cone Health System in 1992.

Raleigh-based WakeMed runs medical facilities across Wake County, including hospitals in Cary and North Raleigh, as well as its flagship campus in Raleigh. The nonprofit also is one of the Triangle's largest private employers, with more than 7,500 workers.

One of Wake County's largest employers is reinstating an incentive plan it suspended earlier this year as the recession raged.

WakeMed next month will hand out about $6.5 million in checks through its "WakeShare" program. The program was canceled in March to help WakeMed meet its budget for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30.

But other cost-cutting, including eliminating 85 jobs in September, allowed the Raleigh-based health system to exceed its earlier financial projections. WakeMed also recently received high marks on a quality and patient satisfaction survey and the hospital's management wanted to reward workers.

"We could not be more proud of what you have helped WakeMed achieve in one of its most challenging financial years due to the nation's economic trial," CEO Bill Atkinson wrote in a memo to WakeMed's more than 7,500 employees.