North Carolina approved AdventHealth's bid to build a new 67-bed acute care hospital, according to the Citizen Times.
Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth, Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health and Charlotte, N.C.-based Novant Health applied for a certificate of need to add beds to Buncombe County in June; Mission — which is owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare — planned to add beds to an existing facility while Novant and AdventHealth proposed building new facilities. AdventHealth announced on social media Nov. 22 that its CON was approved.
AdventHealth has a hospital in Hendersonville, N.C., and the new facility would grow its presence in the state. The new hospital is expected to open in 2025 and cost around $254 million.
A Mission spokesperson told the Citizen Times the health system opposes AdventHealth's certificate of need and may fight the decision. Mission would have been able to immediately add 12 critical care and intensive care unit beds to its hospital.
In July, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein wrote a letter urging the health department to decline Mission's bid to add beds in favor of bringing more competition to the region.
"Mission has almost no competition for acute care in Buncombe County. The lack of competition is the result of Mission's unique history. Mission effectively operated as a legislatively authorized monopoly for over twenty years, and no new hospitals have opened even after Mission's arrangement with the state ended in 2016," Mr. Stein wrote.