Easing of coronavirus pandemic clears way for opening of Rex Holly Springs hospital

After a delay of several weeks brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, UNC Rex Holly Springs hospital will open on Nov. 1.

UNC Health made the announcement Tuesday morning, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases at the main Rex hospital in Raleigh.

Rex had planned to open the Holly Springs hospital in September. But with its main hospital struggling to keep up with the late summer surge in COVID-19 cases, Rex leaders decided to focus their staff there.

The number of COVID-19 patients at Rex peaked in late August at 67, said Dr. Linda Butler, the chief medical officer. It declined a bit in September, but the number needing intensive care didn’t crest until Sept. 21, at 26.

On Monday, Rex was down to 34 COVID-19 patients, Butler said, mirroring a decline in coronavirus hospitalizations statewide.

The waning of the coronavirus outbreak means UNC can begin to shift some of its staff from Raleigh to the Holly Springs hospital. When it opens at the corner of N.C. 55 and Avent Ferry Road, Rex Holly Springs will have 300 employees, about 40% of them transfers from Rex in Raleigh.

The Holly Springs hospital will eventually employ more than 400 people. It will have 50 inpatient beds, a 24-bed emergency department, operating rooms and a maternity center with seven labor and delivery rooms and an operating suite for C-sections.

UNC Rex first proposed building a hospital in Holly Springs in 2011. Novant Health, based in Winston-Salem, had proposed building a hospital in town in 2008 and again in 2011 but was turned down both times by state regulators.

But regulators approved the UNC Rex proposal in 2012, over objections from Novant and WakeMed. Novant filed an appeal in court, but dropped its legal fight in 2014 after two decisions in Rex’s favor.

Construction on the eight-story hospital didn’t get started until 2019, as Rex and UNC focused on building a heart and vascular center in Raleigh.

All three of the Triangle’s big health care systems are jockeying to serve patients in fast-growing western Wake County. WakeMed received permission from state regulators to add 30 acute care beds to its hospital in Cary, bringing the total there to 208.

Meanwhile, Duke Health plans to build a 40-bed hospital on Green Level West Road in western Cary. Construction of Duke Green Level Hospital is expected to begin in April 2023 and be complete by the summer of 2026.