Rex Hospital, the official healthcare provider for N.C. State Athletics, has plans to build an outpatient expansion center on Macon Pond Road, but Rex is waiting on approval from the state to begin, according to Kerry Grace Heckle, Rex’s marketing and public relations manager.

If built, Heckle said the center will make Rex’s Urgent Care Service its closest to N.C. State.

To begin building, the hospital is waiting on a certificate of need from the state of North Carolina, which she said ensures that healthcare services are cost-effective, of high quality and equally accessible for everyone. Rex sent an application for a certificate of need Feb. 15, but has not received any response yet, she said. They plan to finish construction, if approved, by 2010, according to Heckle.

Rex wants to build this expansion, which will be across the street from the hospital’s main Blue Ridge Road campus, “in an effort to streamline our services to allow patients better access to those services,” Heckle said.

According to Heckle, the expansion will feature easier access to the front door and parking, more convenient services, and a much more streamlined approach.

“It will be much more convenient for the patients,” she said. “I would say that [the expansion] will allow patients from N.C. State or anywhere else easier access. Our outpatient healthcare services would be removed from the main hospital [to] across the street in one location.”

The new Macon Pond Center will provide more services to make the main hospital less congested, Heckle said. The plans are to relocate such things as outpatient surgery, urgent care, laboratory services, radiology services and others to the new site.

Heckle said she did not know how much the facility would cost, but that it will be “part of our budgeting process as we look to expand our services.”

There are also Rex Urgent Care Centers in Cary, Wakefield and North Raleigh.

Travis Wettroth, a freshman in political science, said Rex’s expansion would be comforting if he is still here when the project is complete.

“Rex is kind of a confusing facility and now at least I will know exactly where I need to go when I get hurt, since it will all be in one location,” Wettroth said.