From Staff Reports

Mission Health announced July 16 that the Dogwood Health Trust was now a legal entity.

As terms of the nonprofit hospital’s pending sale to for-profit, Nashville-based HCA, it was agreed that proceeds of the sale would go into a trust to expand access to healthcare in the region.

Janice Brumit, who now serves on Mission’s board of directors, was named the organization’s founding chair. 

Brumit has also served on the boards of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina and the Buncombe County Economic Development Coalition, and she was a UNC Asheville trustee.

The trust is now taking nominations for candidates for other inaugural board members.

Details about the fund’s mission have not been ironed out. Determining how the board will function and who will be the target beneficiaries will be a multi-year project.

Once the board is seated, assessments of community needs and viable partners will be conducted, and priorities will be identified. The board will also study how other healthcare foundations function, obtain legal approvals, and “develop staff and infrastructure.” 

Mission’s CEO Dr Ron Paulus estimated the hospital system will sell for somewhere between $1billion to $2 billion, giving the trust $50-$100 million as its beginning balance. At that, it would be the third largest foundation in the state.

 Grants would not be awarded until 2020.