Amid the consistent migration of surgical cases from inpatient hospitals to outpatient settings, one North Carolina medical center is, at least temporarily, reversing the tide.
Local media outlet CityView reports that Cape Fear Valley Health is seeking permission from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Service Regulation under the state’s Certificate of Need law to relocate all 11 ORs at its Fayetteville Ambulatory Surgery Center to its main campus in the same city.
Three of the ASC’s ORs would move to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, while the other eight would move to a new medical office building nearby.
CityView reports that the project, expected to cost more than $18 million with a targeted completion in January 2028, would result in 28 ORs on the medical center’s campus. It states that in a letter to the government agency, Cape Fear Valley Health CEO Daniel Weatherly wrote that “our existing operating rooms are consistently operating at high utilization levels, limiting flexibility for urgent, add-on, and trauma-related cases.”
CityView reports that physicians currently practicing at the Fayetteville ASCs submitted letters of approval for the move. It states that more than 12,000 surgical cases were performed at the medical center in 2025, a 4.7% increase from 2024. It writes that the increased demand is driven not only by the hospital’s 2024 expansion, but also by a high volume of urgent and emergency cases from its busy emergency department, which had the second-most visits in the state.
Another driver cited by Cape Fear Valley Health, reports CityView, are renovations at nearby Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg. The Army hospital plans to expand its number of ORs from 12 to 14, but construction will take three years, during which it will only have six ORs available. Cape Fear Valley Health expects the renovations will drive 150 additional cases per month to its medical center.
Read CityView’s full report here.
