When her 2-year-old daughter has come down with ear infections, Norris has relied on WakeMed in Raleigh. Soon, the Clayton family won't have to travel so far.

On Sunday, Johnston Health, the county's public health-care provider, celebrated the upcoming opening of its Clayton hospital with a health fair and tours of the $40 million building on N.C. 42 West.

"It's nice," Norris said of the hospital. "And I live a mile away. That's what makes it nicer."

At the event on Sunday, people got chair massages and health screenings and listened to live music. Kids climbed on inflatable toys and checked the health of stuffed animals in a teddy-bear clinic.

As Johnston Health is showing off its new hospital and Johnston Professional Plaza, which will house doctors' offices, the town is celebrating the promise of more development. Plans for retail stores and restaurants could turn N.C. 42 West into a commercial hub, much like the nearby Cleveland community, where a Wal-Mart opened last week.

A long time coming

Johnston Health leaders hope the new hospital will ease the crowded emergency room in Smithfield and give residents in western Johnston and southeastern Wake counties another heath-care option.

The hospital, which will open Oct. 1, will have an emergency department and offer diagnostic imaging, laboratory services and outpatient surgery.

The state has given Johnston Health the go-ahead to move 27 in-patient beds from the Smithfield hospital, but that won't happen right away.

The goal of hospital leaders is to convince patients to go to Clayton instead of WakeMed in Raleigh.

Daniel Register, director of the new hospital's emergency room, said the choice should be simple. "The drawing factor is, why would you drive 30 minutes when you can drive five minutes and get the same service?" Register said.

But Johnston Health isn't the only health-care company that's expanding. Last week, WakeMed announced it had won approval to build new medical centers, including one in Garner, next door to Clayton.

Western Johnston and southeastern Wake counties have seen steady population growth. Register, a nurse who grew up near the new hospital and still lives nearby, said he can remember riding the school bus in the N.C. 42 area, when sprawling farms were everywhere.

He's looking forward to what's coming, and he's proud it's starting with a new hospital. "I've had people tell me in the community this is at least 10 years overdue," Register said.

A healthy profession

The hospital is bringing new jobs to the area.

More than 700 people applied for the 70 or so new jobs at the hospital, said Jackie Ring, chief operating officer of the Clayton facility. In all, more than 100 people will work at the hospital, with Johnston Health transferring a number of people from its Smithfield hospital and from Summit Medical Center in Clayton.

Jobs in health care have proven more stable during the economic downturn. Tracy Butler, a registered nurse, had a luxury many people don't have now: She quit her job at another hospital for a job at the Clayton hospital.

"I just wanted to be part of something new, building something from the ground up," Butler said.

But hospitals are not recession-proof, said Jim Perpich, marketing director for Johnston Health. The system faces mounting debt from patients who can't pay.

"Health care is always prone to the ups and downs of the economy," Perpich said. "It always has been."

The economy's effect

The sour economy could deal a blow to development around the hospital.

Last spring, town leaders approved plans for what Mayor Jody McLeod called "the most intense development we've seen in Clayton."

The plan calls for banks, drugstores, fast-food restaurants, a grocery store and medical offices on 50 acres around the new hospital.

"I think that is a natural area for retail," said Jim Baker of The Lundy Group in Raleigh, which is developing the tract.

It's a five- to eight-year project, Baker said, and the credit crunch is still a factor. The company had wanted to attract a major grocery chain in the first phase of the project, but the economy could put it on hold for a while.

"You have to have a long-term view of this," Baker said.

For now, some residents who attended Sunday's event said they're just happy to have a hospital nearby. "It's beautiful," Elizabeth Dehner of Clayton said. "It's close to our house, so we're very excited."