Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has closed its Asheville (N.C.) Specialty Hospital, a long-term acute care hospital owned by Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health.
Here are five things to know about the closure:
1. The closure comes two months after Category 4 Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 in Florida and continued to move through the Southeast.
2. Following the storm, Asheville-based Mission Hospital had unpressurized water and was forced to use more than 20 tanker trucks of water daily to run clinical operations. Surgeries were delayed due to road closures that prevented employees from arriving to work and resulted in a lack of clean supplies.
3. Asheville Specialty Hospital suspended services during the storm, the Asheville Watchdog reported Nov. 25.
4. "We have made the difficult decision to not reopen Asheville Specialty Hospital…," Nancy Lindell, a spokesperson for Mission Health, said in a Nov. 26 statement shared with Becker's. "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."
5. Employees at Asheville Specialty Hospital have been caring for patients at Mission Hospital since the storm. Permanent roles have been offered to every employee affected by the closure, Ms. Lindell said, according to the Watchdog.