Despite city water returning, HCA decides not to reopen Asheville Specialty Hospital

By Dean Hensley

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Although the Asheville Water Resources Department lifted the boil water notice on Nov. 18 and water returned to the city, HCA announced on Nov. 25 that it will not be reopening Asheville Specialty Hospital, which was on the St. Joseph’s campus of Mission Hospital.

A letter was sent out to Asheville Specialty Hospital employees last week, informing them of the decision. According to Mission’s website, Asheville Specialty Hospital had 34 beds and was a long-term acute care hospital, also known as an LTACH. With Asheville Specialty’s closure, the closest LTACH now will be in Greenville, South Carolina.

Mission’s website said that Asheville Specialty also had physical and speech therapy, a stroke center, dialysis services, along with traumatic brain injury rehabilitation services. Lindell said Asheville Specialty Hospital employees were given opportunities to take on other roles at Mission, so that no jobs were lost.

“We have had to focus on prioritizing our resources during and after Hurricane Helene to care for the most urgent medical needs of our community. Since Hurricane Helene, Asheville Specialty Hospital employees have been caring for patients at Mission Hospital and that continues to be where they are most needed,” she said. “We have permanent roles available for every caregiver who wishes to remain part of our Mission Health team. Any unit across our entire Mission Health family will be fortunate to have the addition of these highly-skilled and very compassionate team members.”

In early October, HCA shut down the building that was formerly St. Joseph’s Hospital since it didn’t have running water. In the process, it moved patients there to other facilities. However, Mission Hospital remained open with more than three dozen water tanker trucks providing water to its facility.

Lindell said in the release that patients who would have been admitted to Asheville Specialty will now go to inpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing care or another LTACH, like the one in Greenville.

CarePartners Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital, which had also been closed due to having no water, is slowly reopening, Lindell said in the release.

“With the return of municipal water, we began reopening CarePartners Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital on Nov. 21. Teams are starting to return to roles there and we have begun admitting patients,” Lindell said. “We hope to have a date set soon for when we can begin to reopen CarePartners Solace.”

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