Duke University Health System has filed an application with the state hoping to expand its diagnostic healthcare services in Mebane.
Duke University Health is seeking state approval to acquire a fixed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced Friday.
The cost to acquire the fixed MRI scanner is estimated at $7.4 million and targeted for completion in July 2026, according to the state health department’s Certificate of Need (CON) section.
A state law requires healthcare providers to obtain a CON in order to develop or offer a “new institutional health service.” The law is intended to restrict “unnecessary increases in health care costs and limit unnecessary health services and facilities based on geographic, demographic, and economic considerations,” according to a description from DHHS.
That CON process is also required before hospitals, diagnostic centers, nursing homes, and other types of healthcare providers are allowed to acquire any new major medical equipment and/or add patient beds, operating rooms, and other medical services.
It is unclear from the application that Duke University Health System has filed with the state whether the MRI scanner would be built at the existing location for Duke Primary Care (along Mebane Oaks Road, in the Garrett Crossing shopping center near Walmart) or at another location.
Duke University Health System has leased that office building since May 2011 and entered into an amended lease agreement late last year, according to documents that have been filed with Alamance County’s Register of Deeds.
The term of the original lease for the 9,000-square foot building at Garrett Crossing was for 15 years, with two optional extension periods of five years each.
The term of the amended lease between Duke University Health System and Fried Egg LLC now runs through the end of December 2032 and includes an option to renew the lease for one additional five-year term, based on a copy of the agreement that was filed in December 2024 with the county’s Register of Deeds’ office. Neither the original nor the amended lease lists the financial terms of the agreement.
Meanwhile, Duke University Health System had purchased 22.44 acres along both sides of Gregory Poole Lane, between an existing Bojangles restaurant and Gregory Poole Equipment, for $3.1 million several years ago, where it had planned to build a Mebane health campus.
While commercial contractor C.T. Wilson had issued an invitation for bids in 2022, and preliminary construction drawings were developed by the Perkins & Will architectural firm, the progress on the Duke Health campus along Gregory Poole Lane had come to a standstill by last fall.
North Carolina’s CON law also provides for a 30-day public comment period, during which any person can file written comments or letters of support for a proposal; a public hearing; and a three to five-month period for DHHS to review the applications.
The deadline to submit written comments regarding Duke University Health System’s application is March 31; and a public hearing on the application is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on April 15 at the Mebane Public Library at 101 South First Street in Mebane, according to DHHS.
The project analyst within the healthcare planning and Certificate of Need Section for DHHS who has been assigned to oversee the CON application process for “Duke Imaging Mebane” had not responded to an inquiry from The Alamance News by press time Wednesday night.
The landlord for the property where Duke Primary Care is located in Mebane, Fried Egg LLC, is a rental real estate company in Chapel Hill managed by Elizabeth B. Craven and David M. Warner, based on the latest annual report that the company has filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
