Throughout Hurricane Helene, the slogan going around Haywood County has been, “neighbors helping neighbors.” The personification of those words is nowhere more apparent than at Haywood Pathways Center in Waynesville, where a small group of volunteers gathered on Oct. 5 to minister to some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.

Hospital staff work through communication disruptions, water system failures and their own storm-induced uncertainty to keep caring for patients. 

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its annual hospital ratings July 31, awarding top five-star ratings for quality of care to the Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville/Oteen, the Margaret R. Pardee Memorial Hospital in Hendersonville, and AdventHealth Hendersonville. 

A Canton woman has filed a lawsuit against Hospital Corporation of America in which she claims “egregious acts of medical and corporate negligence” during the birth of her son led to his suffering a permanent hypoxic brain injury that will allegedly leave him to deal with cerebral palsy and “associated delays and disabilities” for the rest of his life.

HCA Healthcare officially broke ground last Friday morning on a $68 million facility to replace Angel Medical Center in Franklin.

More than 2 years later, secrets and silence continue

By Peter H. Lewis
AVL Watchdog

The news stunned Asheville and Western North Carolina, where Mission Health System Inc. was the area’s largest employer, its main healthcare provider, and a long-time source of civic pride. Seemingly out of the blue, Mission’s directors publicly announced on March 21, 2018, that they had voted to sell the 133-year-old nonprofit to HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, for an estimated $1.5 billion.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein issued a letter to HCA Healthcare’s president last week wanting answers to the many concerns his office has heard regarding the for-profit’s takeover of Mission Health System in Western North Carolina. 

The independent firm responsible for ensuring HCA Healthcare complies with the terms of its purchase agreement for Mission Health Systems held a public meeting in Franklin on Thursday, but residents were frustrated to learn there’s not much Gibbins Advisors can do about their complaints. 

How can $1.5 billion transform the health and wellness of Western North Carolina communities for decades to come? That’s the question Dogwood Health Trust’s Board of Directors is currently asking itself since the new foundation was tasked with spending the proceeds from Mission Health’s sale to HCA Healthcare last year. 

Plans to construct a new Angel Medical Center in Franklin moved forward last week after the town planning board approved a special-use permit for the replacement hospital.