UNC Health is applying to build a new hospital in Asheville.
The nonprofit hospital system is one of several competitors vying for state approval to expand in western North Carolina.
The new UNC Health facility, dubbed UNC Health West, would be located near the Westgate Shopping Center off Patton Avenue. It would contain 92 beds and a range of departments, including an emergency room and an intensive care unit.
UNC Health submitted the proposal as part of North Carolina’s “Certificate of Need” (CON) process, which regulates the expansion of health care facilities in the state. Every year, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services determines the need for healthcare facilities and services in different counties. Applications are open at various points of the year.
The latest round of competition is for up to 92 acute-care beds serving residents of Buncombe, Clay, Graham, Madison and Yancey counties. Applications were due June 15.
“UNC Health has a strong foundation of clinical care and education in Western North Carolina, and we are so grateful for the trust placed in us by patients across the state,” UNC Health CEO Cristy Page said in a statement Thursday. “As these communities grow, our goal is to grow along with them to ensure increased access to care, closer to home, from the state’s public, academic health system.”
The hospital is far from a done deal, though. At least one other competitor — Novant Health — has also submitted a proposal to expand in the latest round of the Certificate of Need process.
Novant is applying to add 20 beds to a medical center it’s building near Biltmore Park in South Asheville. If it wins approval, that facility — known as Novant Health Asheville Medical Center — would have a total of 54 beds.
“Novant Health is committed to growing alongside the communities we serve to ensure patients have access to high-quality care close to home,” Novant Health spokesperson Ashton Miller said in a statement. “If approved, these beds will help us meet the region’s growing healthcare needs and expand access to timely, advanced care for patients across Buncombe County and beyond.”
Spokespeople for two other hospital systems in the region — AdventHealth and HCA Healthcare, which owns Asheville’s Mission Hospital — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
All four have been competing to expand in western North Carolina over the past several years.
In late March, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services granted Mission Hospital permission to add 95 beds to its Asheville facility, the largest in the region. It also gave Novant Health the green light to build its 34-bed medical center in South Asheville.
AdventHealth and UNC Health appealed that decision in April. An administrative law judge is expected to rule on the matter by early 2027.
Alan Wolf, a UNC Health spokesperson, said Thursday that the proposed 92-bed hospital near Westgate is a different project from the 129-bed facility UNC Health previously proposed in South Asheville, known as UNC Health West Medical Center.
“To be clear: We are pursuing the two hospitals — one via the appeals process and this new one via the CON process — but would build only one, depending on what wins approval,” Wolf said in an email.
