The last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of news about Haywood Regional Medical Center and its potential partnership with Duke LifePoint Healthcare. 

Understandably, many people in the communities served by this hospital have questions about the proposed partnership with Duke LifePoint and what this means to everyone who relies on the hospital for quality health care services close to home.    

The process for exploring this potential partnership is just beginning, and we have a lot of work to do to learn more about one another and examine how we can best work together.

While we are not able to provide specific information about our proposal at this stage, we can share some information about Duke LifePoint and why we are interested in acquiring Haywood Regional Medical Center.  

Duke LifePoint works with community hospitals to strengthen their ability to provide the best possible health care to meet the needs of their communities. We provide support and resources to help these hospitals weather the changing healthcare environment, expand the services they provide, recruit new physicians to their facilities, offer new opportunities for their employees and find better ways to serve their communities. We make long-term investments of capital and other resources to help our hospitals succeed, and we are focused on keeping care local.  We strive to give our hospitals’ employees outstanding opportunities for professional and personal growth.

We recognize the importance of collaborating with local and regional providers for the best possible outcomes for our patients. Improving the quality care provided within each of our communities is our top priority. 

We also pride ourselves on being a good community partner. We have maintained or increased charity care levels at every hospital with which we have partnered, and we work to support important community causes. 

Duke LifePoint chose to submit a proposal to acquire Haywood Regional Medical Center because we believe that this hospital has tremendous promise. We like that its communities are committed to the hospital’s success, and we see great opportunity to strengthen the hospital for the future.  

The Duke LifePoint team is very excited at the prospect of being part of Haywood Regional and the hospital’s communities. We look forward to getting to know you all in the weeks to come and hope that you are looking forward to getting to know us. We believe that, together, we can make a big difference, and we are eager to move forward with next steps.

Willaim F. Carpenter

Chief Executive Officer

LifePoint Hospitals

William J. Fulkerson Jr., M.D.

Executive Vice President

Duke University Health System