WakeMed will seek to expand the rehabilitation hospital at its main Raleigh campus to provide more services for a growing and aging population of patients recovering from strokes, joint replacements and traumatic injuries.

WakeMed officials will apply with state regulators this week for permission to add 14 beds at its existing rehab facility, which already has 84 beds. The expansion would allow WakeMed to offer more specialized care, said Stan Taylor, the hospital's vice president of corporate planning.

"When you get to a critical mass of around 100 beds, you can really do some things smaller hospitals can't," he added during a phone interview last week. "This additional allocation of beds would move us up to a level with world-reknowned programs" such as the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.

But other hospitals in this region will submit their own proposals for the 14 beds, which state regulators have determined this area needs to meet increasing demand. Applications are due this week to the state's Certificate of Need office, which controls major medical projects to limit costs.

The Duke University Health System has joined forces with a for-profit hospital operator based in Tennessee to buy and run community hospitals across North Carolina.

Duke and LifePoint Hospitals on Monday announced that they've signed their first deal: to run Maria Parham Medical Center in Henderson, a hospital about 45 miles north of Raleigh with 102 beds. The agreement is expected to be finalized in April.

The goal of the joint venture is to add other community hospitals across the state, said William Fulkerson, executive vice president of the Duke health system.

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

Changes to Duke University and Duke University Health System employees’ insurance plans will reduce the choices and quality of medical care in the area, physicians told the Durham County Commissioners today.

Representatives from Triangle Orthopedic Associates, Durham Internal Medicine, Regional Neurosurgery and other businesses said changes that took effect Jan. 1 prevent Duke employees from seeing a number of physicians in the Durham Regional Hospital network. The change could result in patients paying out-of-pocket expenses, or changing to doctor unfamiliar with their care, they said.
Duke employs about 34,000 people.

Kyle Cavanaugh, Duke vice president for human resources, said the change didn’t target Durham Regional, but sought to bring the system in compliance with national health care reform.   

“We are just like every other employer in the nation. We have gone through a number of different changes in our health care plan in an effort to provide competitive benefits and manage our costs,” he said.

Commissioners Chairman Michael Page said county leaders will investigate whether the changes violate provisions in Duke’s contract to lease Durham Regional. 

We wil have more on this story as it develops. If you would like to speak to a reporter, please contact Virginia Bridges at virginiabridges@gmail.com. 

A Durham-based nonprofit that employs blind and visually impaired people to manufacture and sell mattresses, military supplies and other products has donated $12 million to help build a new Duke Eye Center.

With the gift from LC Industries, officials with the Duke University Health System have begun planning the project and expect to apply for permission to build a larger facility with state regulators by early next year.

The current Duke Eye Center treats more than 80,000 patients a year and the volume of surgeries and clinic visits has increased 9 percent a year for the past five years. The aging population and diseases such as diabetes are fueling a surge in vision loss.

"For years, we have been bursting at the seams in our current facility," said center chairman David Epstein, center chairman and Duke's chairman of Ophthalmology, in a prepared statement.

Duke University Health System plans to expand its medical empire.

Duke announced this morning it is building a new Cancer Center and Duke Medicine Paviliion at its main Durham campus. The two facilities will cost more than $700 million and add about 850,000 square feet to the campus.

The seven-story Cancer Center will be next to the current Morris Cancer Clinic and is expected to open in 2012. The eight-story pavilion is expected to be ready in 2013.

Medical expansions continue to fuel the local economy during the recession, with new projects proposed or underway in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Clayton, Hillsborough and elsewhere.

The latest Duke project will create about 1,500 jobs during construction and 1,000 jobs when finished, university officials estimate.

Duke has recently finished renovations at Duke Raleigh and Durham
Regional hospitals, and opened clinics in Brier Creek, Morrisville,
Knightdale and North Raleigh.

Duke University Health System's next grand experiment hopes to turn the treatment of chronic disease on its ear - and to do so, it will use its home city as a laboratory.

Duke has announced plans for a series of new projects that will look for new ways to treat chronic diseases prevalent in Durham. These aren't unusual diseases, to be sure, but cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other maladies common to Durham and elsewhere could use a new way of treatment, Duke officials argue.

Read more about the new initiative here.