State regulators say that Wake County needs more than 100 new hospital beds, setting up a brawl among this region's largest medical providers.

To control health costs, the state puts limits on how many hospital beds are allocated by county each year, based on patient volume, projected population growth and other factors.

The proposed N.C. State Medical Facilities Plan includes 102 additional beds that will be needed in Wake County by 2013. The state's largest metropolitan area, Charlotte's Mecklenburg County, will need 101 beds, the plan states.

Wake's existing hospitals WakeMed, Rex and Duke Raleigh will apply to add the new beds on their campuses or to build new facilities. And outside providers that want to establish a foothold in the fast-growing market also will likely be contenders.

WakeMed plans to partner with a developer on a $25 million medical center and office building at Brier Creek that is expected to open in October of next year.

Last week the hospital system paid $2.9 million for nearly 13 acres at the southwest corner of T.W. Alexander Drive and ACC Boulevard.

Thomas Cavender, WakeMed’s vice president of facilities and construction, said the hospital system will put out feelers for development partners this summer and likely start construction in the fall.
 

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.

The state's largest health insurer is planning to expand a program that puts its customer-service employees on site at hospitals.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield started a partnership with WakeMed in Raleigh a year ago that's designed to improve customer service for the insurer's members, and to speed up claims processing. The insurer began a similar program with UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill in December.

Now Blue Cross is considering adding other hospitals and physician practices across the state as it looks at more ways to reduce its costs.

Initial results from the WakeMed arrangement show that more than half of all claims inquiries were resolved on the day they were received, up nearly 23 percent from a year earlier. Also, more claims were submitted electronically, reducing paperwork and processing time.

"Blue Cross is committed to making North Carolina's health care system work more efficiently, and improving customer service is an important step in that direction," said senior vice president Ian Gordon, in a prepared statement.

Blue Cross has 3.7 million members.

A local couple has donated $1 million to WakeMed's Just for Kids Kampaign to honor a long-time friend who has been a proponent for children's healthcare in the Triangle.

Wes and Janet Chesson gave the money to the program to honor their long-time friend, Dr. Jerry Bernstein, who has worked with Raleigh Pediatric Associates for 36 years. Bernstein has had a long connection with WakeMed, serving as president of WakeMed's medical staff and the first chairman of the WakeMed Foundation Board – a position he held for nine years.  He has also been a supporter of WakeMed's Just for Kids Kampaign to raise $20 million for the construction of WakeMed Children's Hospital and the expansion of children's services.

"What Jerry has done for our children, let alone all the children in the community, is invaluable," said Wes Chesson, who works for local insurance and financial services company Hill, Chesson and Woody.

As a result of the donation, the new Children's Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit will be named the Jerry C. Bernstein, MD Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Wake County's largest hospital system will join forces with an Alabama company that runs a chain of outpatient surgery centers across the country as it continues to expand its surgery business.

Under the partnership announced today, WakeMed will buy a controlling interest in the Blue Ridge Surgery Center now run by Surgical Care Affiliates, just down the street from rival Rex Hospital in west Raleigh. And SCA will help WakeMed manage its outpatient surgery centers in Cary and Raleigh.

About 140 WakeMed employees in Cary will transfer to SCA in May. No job cuts are expected, said WakeMed CEO William Atkinson, left.

SCA also will help WakeMed develop a new outpatient center adjacent to its main campus in Raleigh. Construction on that $60.7 million facility, which has already won state regulatory approval, is expected to begin by early 2011.

Demand for outpatient surgery centers is increasing as Wake County's population continues to grow. Efforts to control medical costs under health-care reform also are expected to increase demand for such centers, which are cheaper to run than full, inpatient hospitals.

Let the latest fight over new medical expansion in the Triangle begin.

This round will feature this region's health providers sparring over three operating rooms that state regulators have ruled will be needed in Wake County.

WakeMed, Rex Healthcare and Duke Raleigh Hospital all submitted applications Monday with the N.C. Certificate of Need office to meet a state deadline. Other bids are likely to filed by later today.

Every year, regulators review projected demand in each county and determine whether there will be a need for additional hospital beds, ORs and more. Then the state accepts bids, reviews applications and determines which project makes the best case based on need, cost and other factors.

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.

Wake County's largest hospital system is exploring a potential partnership with a private company that runs a chain of outpatient surgery centers across the country.

WakeMed's discussions with Surgical Care Affiliates could lead to various collaborations, including SCA managing WakeMed's three outpatient facilities in Raleigh and Cary.

Another possibility would involve WakeMed buying a majority stake in SCA's only local facility, the Blue Ridge Surgery Center just down the street from rival Rex Healthcare.

The two organizations expect to decide on an agreement by the end of February. WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said hospital officials have talked with Birmingham, Ala.-based SCA for several years about joining forces.

Tapping SCA's experience will help as Wake County's population continues to grow and WakeMed looks at adding more outpatient centers, Atkinson said. Demand for such centers, which are seen as a way to control medical costs compared with inpatient hospitals, could increase with a reformed health-care system.

The No. 2 executive at WakeMed, one of Wake County's largest private employers, is leaving to run a hospital in Milwaukee.

Deborah G. Friberg joined WakeMed in 1995 and has served as chief operating officer since 2006. The Raleigh-based hospital system has hospital campuses and clinics across Wake County and about 7,700 employees.

She is moving to Columbia St. Mary's in Milwaukee, a health system of four hospitals, 62 clinics, a nursing college and several urgent-care facilities. The system is preparing to open a $500 million hospital that Friberg will oversee as president.