WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center today is submitting its official application to the state to build a replacement hospital in Davie County.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, through North Carolina Baptist Hospital and its co-applicant, the Davie County Emergency Health Corporation, is proposing to build an 81-bed community hospital with a broad range of services to meet the needs of Davie County and the adjoining areas of Clemmons and Lewisville in Forsyth County and the southern portion of Yadkin County.
The hospital will employ a minimum of 250 people, an increase from the 139 at the existing Davie County Hospital. “While there is a significant increase in employment, there also will be more physicians practicing at the new hospital. Some of them may open offices and hire staffs in Davie County, increasing the economic impact on the community,” said Donny Lambeth, interim president of Baptist Hospital.
According to the application, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center will build a six-story building containing 225,000 square feet with surface parking on a 25-acre site on N.C. 801 just north of the I-40 interchange in eastern Davie County. The estimated cost is approximately $123.5 million.
“We will extend the world-class quality of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to the new Davie County Hospital,” said Lambeth. “The new Davie County Hospital will serve the Davie-Clemmons-Yadkin community conveniently with services you expect from a community hospital, and patients who are severely ill or injured will have ready access to the specialty care available at Wake Forest Baptist.”
“The medical staff will include specialty physicians to supplement the existing staff of Davie County Hospital,” said William Applegate, M.D., interim president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences. “Doctors from Wake Forest University Physicians, Wake Forest University Community Physicians and physicians from the community will comprise a large and highly qualified medical staff.”
The new hospital also will have a 10-bed observation unit, where patients with possible heart attacks or strokes can be monitored and treated.
Three operating rooms are planned in the hospital to enable additional surgical procedures to be performed in Davie County, so patients will not have to drive to Winston-Salem as frequently. Additional surgeons are expected to join the medical staff.
Plans also call for the hospital to provide full obstetrical services, in addition to medical-surgical services, a critical care unit, physical and respiratory therapy, endoscopy, lab services and diagnostic imaging services, including mammography, CT and MRI. The emergency room will be staffed by a physician 24 hours every day.
As part of its plan to expand the availability of health care in Davie County, Wake Forest Baptist will also build a primary care center in Mocksville, offering urgent care, occupational health and physicians’ offices.
The state is not required to approve the primary care center, which is expected to cost approximately $1.5 million.
# # #
Media Contacts: Jonnie Rohrer, jrohrer@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-6972 or Mark Wright, mwright@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-3382.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.