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.

More North Carolina residents are skipping visits to the doctor and dentist as the recession rages on.

An annual survey done in April and May for Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, showed that 36 percent of residents were buying fewer prescription medicines and 31 percent were refilling prescriptions less quickly.

As expected, the 12 percent of respondents without insurance were cutting back the most. Of those, nearly half were postponing health screenings and operations, compared with 13 percent of those with coverage. And 43 percent of the uninsured were not getting physicals, compared with 13 percent with insurance.

“The recession and rising health care costs are having an impact on preventive health services – the very services that can help detect or prevent more serious and costly health problems down the road,” said Blue Cross chief medical officer Don Bradley, in a prepared statement. “But there’s never a good time to skip preventive health and healthy living.”

A health-care consulting company plans to add 300 jobs in Charlotte over the next five years, state officials announced today.

Premier Inc. already employs about 750 people in Charlotte out of its total work force of 1,100. State officials promised the company up to $4,089,000 in incentives if it creates the new jobs and keeps all the existing ones.

The company will move its headquarters to Charlotte from San Diego as part of the expansion. The new jobs will pay average annual salaries of at least $62,460.

Premier helps hospitals reduce costs, improve care and negotiate the best prices for supplies and services. In March, the company named as its new CEO Susan DeVore, who lives in Charlotte.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has promoted one of its top executives to president, putting him in line to succeed CEO Bob Greczyn, who plans to retire next year.

The board of the state's largest health insurer over the weekend approved naming chief operating officer J. Bradley Wilson to the president spot. Greczyn will remain CEO, but has indicated he will step down in 2010.

Wilson, 56, is a lawyer who joined Blue Cross in 1995 after serving as general counsel for Gov. Jim Hunt. Wilson, who holds degrees from Appalachian State, Wake Forest and Duke universities, also is on the University of North Carolina board of governors.

Greczyn, 58, has been CEO and president for 11 years. The health insurer covers more than 3.7 million members, including as administrator for the state employees' health plan.

A Morrisville company that helps businesses convert paper documents to digital form has been bought by a Scranton, Pa.-based document-management firm.

No, this isn't an episode of TV's "The Office."

Active Data Services, which provides document and billing services to health-care, insurance and financial customers, was acquired by Diversified Information Technologies of Scranton -- where the TV comedy is set.

Most of ADS' 105 employees will stay in Morrisville but shift to the new company. "This isn't the typical slash-and-burn type acquisition," said Diversified CEO Scott Byers.

The deal is part of Diversified's strategy of expanding its business in the "Maine to Miami corridor" and gives the company a strong foothold in the Triangle, Byers said. ADS' clients include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, College Foundation, AICPA and Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions.

Novant Health of Winston-Salem will take over management of Franklin Regional Medical Center in Louisburg, as part of a restructuring of joint venture with Health Management Associates announced today.

In March 2008, Novant purchased a 27 percent ownership of seven Carolinas hospitals, including Franklin Regional, from HMA.

With the restructuring, Novant increases its ownership interest to 99 percent in Franklin Regional, located about 30 miles northeast of Raleigh.

The deal will allow Novant to become more involved in patient care, physician partnerships and community outreach, said Novant president Paul Wiles.

Novant recently lost a bid to build a community hospital in Holly Springs after its proposal was rejected by state regulators. The company has wanted to expand its foothold in the fast-growing Triangle health-care market.

The company owns 12 hospitals across the Carolinas, including Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem and Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte.

Cary Urology won approval from state regulators to build a $9.8 million prostate-cancer center in east Raleigh.

The project beat competing proposals from several major hospitals across the state. Those rejected bids are likely to be appealed, a legal process that could delay Cary Urology's plans.

Assuming the project doesn't get derailed by appeals, Cary Urology hopes to begin building soon and open the center within a year or two, said partner Dr. Kevin Khoudary.

"This is a good thing for Wake County," he said. "The center will be for everyone, but we'll have aggressive minority outreach."

North Carolina is among the top three states for deaths among black men from prostate cancer, he added. "We've been trying to bring attention to this for a few years now."

RadarFind, a Morrisville company that sells wireless technology to help hospitals keep tabs on medical equipment and patients, has been acquired by a Pittsburgh corporation.

RadarFind is now a subsidiary of TeleTracking Technologies, which helps more than 800 hospitals cut costs by improving the flow of patients.

Founded in 2003, RadarFind has installed its Real Time Location System in seven hospitals. WakeMed's Cary hospital has been using the system since April.

TeleTracking will use its marketing team to sell RadarFind products to a bigger customer base, said Mike Nelson, who is now president of TeleTracking's RadarFind division.

TeleTracking plans to keep RadarFind's manufacturing and customer-support operations in Morrisville and most of RadarFind's 24 employees. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

RadarFind CEO William "Terry" Kane has stepped down, but will continue providing consulting assistance for now, Nelson said.