Preparing For the Future

A visitor to the blog recently posed interesting question. "With all of the growth in the system does the WakeMed still need the additional 41 beds?"

The answer is yes. This month, WakeMed opened the first new acute care beds in Wake County since Cary Hospital was built in 1991. We also expect to add 60 new beds to the Raleigh Campus next year. But, even with this significant growth, our predictions are that WakeMed's hospitals will still be operating at capacity and demand will be even greater because of population growth, not to mention the impact of the aging baby boomer generation. By 2013, Wake County's population is expected to reach 1 million residents. Only three years later, Wake County is expected to be the most populated county in North Carolina.

And, as the Baby Boomers begin to retire, the health care system needs to expand to respond to the growing needs of an aging population. According to a release distributed by the American Hospital Association last year, more than 37 million baby boomers - six out of 10 - will be managing more than one chronic health condition by 2030, when the last of the baby boomers reach age 65. Fourteen million will be living with diabetes (that's one out of every four Boomers). Almost half will be living with arthritis, peaking to just over 26 million in 2020. And, more than one out of three - over 21 million - will be considered obese. WakeMed needs to be prepared to handle the influx of patients.

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The News & Observer: N.C.'s older population to grow

About 20 percent of Americans will be older than 65 by 2030, compared to about 12 percent now, according to projections released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

For the complete story ... http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/census/story/1177477.html