Mission Health will build a second emergency room(ER) department in western Buncombe County.
Mission Hospital submitted plans to build the new ER in May 2023.
BPR reported that the filed a certificate of need (CON) application to develop the freestanding facility included emergency, laboratory, radiology and pharmacy services. The project is expected to cost $29 million and would be completed in July 2025.
The new ER will be a campus of Mission Hospital and will be built near the intersection of Smokey Park Hwy and Interstate 40 on Crowell Road in western Buncombe County.
A Mission Health statement said that it has already purchased the location and that construction will begin soon.
“It is exciting for us and our community that we will have this additional access to exceptional emergency care for our region. We are pleased that the CON Section has once again given its approval and we can move forward in providing emergency care closer to home for this community,” Chad Patrick, CEO Mission Hospital, said in a press release.
The 12-room facility will be open 24 hours a day and will include on-site diagnostic imaging (CT, x-ray, ultrasound) and clinical laboratory services.
In 2022, Mission was granted CON approval for two new emergency departments in Buncombe County, one in Candler and a second in Arden. This latest application is for a “do-over” of the CON for the ER in Candler. The CON was denied after appeals to the state by Advent Hospital and Pardee Hospital, according to Mission.
Advent Health is currently building an new 67-bed acute care facility in Buncombe County after competing for the opportunity with Mission Hospital System and Winston Salem-based Novant Health in 2022. The plans have been delayed as a new location is being chosen and Mission Health appealed the decision.
In2019, HCA Healthcare purchased Mission Health System which includes six regional hospitals across Western North Carolina from Macon County to McDowell County.
