From Staff Reports 

WEAVERVILLE — Advent- Health unveiled ambitious plans — on March 19 — to build a $254 million, 67-bed, multi-specialty hospital on a 25-acre site off U.S. 25/70 west of I-26 in Weaverville — to serve Buncombe County.

And, two days later (on March 21 afternoon) the hospital system announced that it also is applying for an additional 26-acute-care-bed expansion of the facility.

“The state outlined the need for 26 acute care beds during its annual State Medical Facilities Plan,” Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported on March 21, and “on Thursday (March 21) afternoon, AdventHealth announced it was applying to add those 26 acute care beds to the facility planned for Weaverville.”

The TV station’s March 21 report added, “News 13 has reached out to other local hospital systems to find out if they plan to apply for the additional beds, but has not had a response.

“The state approved the application from AdventHealth for its new hospital in 2022, but the facility was delayed when HCA/Mission Health appealed the decision. A decision on that appeal is expected in the coming weeks,” according to News 13.

“Knowing the rate of families raising their growing families or reaching retirement age and those moving to the region, Advent-

Health’s search for the location to build our new hospital in Buncombe County always included the likely need to add beds and services in the future,” AdventHealth Hendersonville president and CEO Brandon Nudd said in a news release.

“We are thankful we found this property in the northern part of the county that meets the need for the 67-bed hospital the state already approved for us to build and will accommodate the beds we are applying for in this new certificate of need.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Planet contacted Victoria Dunkle, communications director for AdventHealth Hendersonville, for further comment on “the latest” twists and turns regarding the plans to build a new hospital — to serve Buncombe County — in Weaverville.

Late afternoon March 22, Dunkle called the Daily Planet upon spotting the newspaper’s email inquiry that, she said, was sent to an old address.

While she noted that she was in the middle of several meetings, Dunkle said she would at least email the the Daily Planet the latest press releases from AdventHealth  and, if time permitted before the newspaper’s deadline, she would email a statment on “the latest” developments — including AdventHealth’s viewpoint — regarding the proposed Weaverville hospital.

However, no statement from Dunkle was received by the Daily Planet early morning March 25 press deadline for this issue.  

Meanwhile, in its AdventHealth story on March 20, News 13 noted, “It’s been 16 months since AdventHealth got the state health regulator’s green light to build a hospital in Weaverville. AdventHealth had hoped to open the $254 million, 67-bed facility by 2025. But groundbreaking on the 25-acre site on U.S. 25/70 off Ollie Weaver Road has been delayed.

Dunkle, AdventHealth’s spokeswoman, was quoted by News 13 as saying, “Having to manage and address the appeal (by Mission Health) did have us kind of waiting for a lot of things.”

News 13’s report added, “Although AdventHealth has closed on the 25-acre property next to the Southern Concrete cement plant, no dirt has been moved and no blueprints are in place. 

“The issue is a waiting game for an administrative law judge to rule on Mission/HCA Healthcare’s appeal of the state’s decision to approve a certificate of need for AdventHealth and not Mission.”

To that end, News 13 quoted Dunkle as saying the following:

“We didn’t stop working behind the scenes. We’ve got a pen and ink rendering from an artist of what we hope it will look like. It will be a decent size footprint in that community.”

But, News 13 noted in its story, “based on construction time, it could be 2027 or 2028 before the hospital opens with an estimated two- to three-year timeline to build. 

Reportedly, the Weaverville hospital will employ 350 to 400 staffers, including employees for an emergency department.

News 13 added, “The hospital will be smaller than AdventHealth’s 103-bed facility in Hendersonville — and less than a tenth of the size of Mission Hospital’s 815 beds.”

What’s more, Barak Richman, a Katharine T. Barlett Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke University’s School of Law with expertise in health care policy, was quoted by News 13 as saying, “The question of whether AdventHealth’s future small hospital could compete with Mission for patients is debatable.

“The fact that you have two hospitals does not mean that the two hospitals are going to compete with one another.

“But a necessary first step is to have a second possibility. And, in most of America, there’s only one hospital system in town,” according to Richman, who recently wrote an op-ed in Politico about the importance of competition for patients, specifically for medical costs in the hospital market.”