Wake County is adding 66 new residents daily. With Rolesville leading this growth, WakeMed Health plans to build a $54 million facility to make it quicker and easier for residents there to get emergency care.
Posted 5/15/2025, 5:28:15 PM
Grace Hayba, WRAL health reporter
A fast-growing part of Wake County could soon welcome its first emergency department.
According to U.S. Census Bureau Data, Wake County is growing by an average of 66 new residents every day. It is the most populous county in North Carolina.
Rolesville is responsible for most of the county’s population surge.
Results of the Wake County 2020 Census counted roughly 9,475 people living in Rolesville, a 150% increase compared to the decade before, the largest growth seen in any part of Wake County.
WakeMed Health told WRAL that growth has fueled efforts to build the first freestanding emergency department in Rolesville.
“It’s booming,” shared Carolyn Knaup, senior VP of strategic ventures at WakeMed. “It’s an opportunity for us to bring healthcare to that market, so they don’t have to continue to travel to us.”
The health executive told WRAL “time is critical,” emphasizing the goal is to improve patient care in northern Wake County by reducing the time it takes to get help.
The closest option for Rolesville residents currently seeking emergency care is WakeMed North on Falls of Neuse Road. The drive takes approximately 20 minutes from the heart of Rolesville, but health officials say traffic and construction often make the trip longer.
“In that service area alone we saw 44,000 patients in our emergency departments last year,” noted Knaup. “That’s a pretty significant number. Rolesville, Wake Forest, Youngsville – they’re all expected to grow by 11%. That is a ton of people.”
Wake County Deputy EMS Chief Don Garner told WRAL another emergency department in the northern part of the county would allow crews to answer more calls for service.
“Even if we’re not transporting a patient to that particular facility, because there is more capacity overall, that will help free us up and decrease what we call ‘wall time,’ which is that time where, when we get to an emergency department, we are waiting for a bed to be available so we can transfer that patient over,” said Garner.
North Carolina’s aging population is also growing. Garner noted there has been a rise in calls for emergency care as a result.
“Our demographics are getting older. They have more health problems and more complicated health problems, so any time you add more capacity to the health system overall, you’ll get improvements,” Garner said.
WakeMed filed a certificate of need application with the state and is seeking approval to build Rolesville’s first freestanding emergency department in a plot of land across from Rolesville Middle School.
The project is expected to provide between 80-90 new jobs and cost just shy of $54 million. Knaup told WRAL the hospital system already has the necessary funds in its budget.
“It’s a health plex, so there’s no beds there,” explained Knaup. “It’s an emergency department with associated imaging, so we’ll have a CT scanner, we’ll have ultrasound, traditional radiology, and we’ll have the capacity to do lab work.”
Knaup further shared lab work capabilities would be available for patients seeking emergency care, and for patients who need routine labs drawn before seeing a primary care physician or other specialty physician.
The WakeMed executive told WRAL other areas of Wake and surrounding counties could benefit from additional freestanding emergency departments to reduce load on existing hospitals.
“When we look at our North emergency department, we are at capacity. We are pretty much landlocked. We’ve expanded as much as we can from an emergency department’s perspective,” said Knaup.
Knaup continued, “I absolutely anticipate that need—whether it’s stand-alone or traditional hospitals—the need is definitely there. I think we are far under-bedded for the number of people that live in this county. COVID certainly saw so many people relocate to North Carolina, and it has absolutely impacted our throughput—and I don’t think that’s just WakeMed. I think it’s everyone’s throughput, to be able to get patients from point A to point B.”
A public hearing for the multimillion-dollar project has been scheduled, in accordance with the state’s certificate of need laws. The meeting is set for June 17 at 10 a.m. in room 26 of the Edgerton Building on the Dorothea Dix Campus in Raleigh.
Wake County will accept written comments concerning the proposal through 5 p.m. on June 2. Comments can be submitted via email to [email protected] or mailed to:
Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section Division of Health Service Regulation 2704 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-2704
When asked if she anticipated any opposition to the proposal, Knaup stated, “We feel strongly our application has the merit to show there is a tremendous need here, and our colleagues will understand this serves everyone when we’re able to serve all of our patients in Wake County. If folks feel there is an opportunity to voice concern, we certainly want everyone to exercise that right.”
If approved, construction is expected to begin in May 2026, with a tentative opening planned for late 2027.
The proposal comes as North Carolina's longstanding Certificate of Need (CON) laws, enacted in 1978, are at the center of a heated legislative debate.