© 2024 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

HCA Celebrates Groundbreaking At New Angel Medical Center

Lilly Knoepp/BPR News
HCA Healthcare, Mission Health System, Angel Medical Center and local leaders gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Angel Medical Center. The event was celebrated with a cake in HCA colors.

Mission Health System celebrated a groundbreaking at the site of the new Angel Medical Center in Franklin.

The $68 million location will not have more beds than current hospital but the new space will have bigger rooms, and new technology and more windows explained Angel Medical Center Board of Trustees Chair Johnny Mira-Knippel.

“We’ve seen a major shift over the last several years to telemedicine, obviously recruiting the types of the physicians that we would need to service all the procedures that occur here is impossible. But with telemedicine we can bring advanced physicians locally to take more of our patients without having to send them away,” said Mira-Knippel. He is the president of TekTone Healthcare Communications. “The new facility is designed with that kind of facility in mind.”  

The new hospital will have a 30-bed capacity inpatient unit with five acuity adaptable beds, 20 medical surgical beds, and five observation beds. It will also have three operating rooms and an endoscopy suite. This includes a 17-bed emergency department. The hospital is also purchasing new technology such as new MRI and CAT scan machines.

HCA Healthcare North Carolina Division President Greg Lowe said this new building shows HCA's commitment to Macon County.  

“When you think about hospitals, rural hospitals across the country its rare to hear of new hospitals being developed, or even renovated, they are closing,” said Lowe. “We’re just so pleased to partner with the teams here in Franklin in this development, in this project.”

Angel CEO Karen Gorby said that construction is expected to take 14 months and the building will turned over to Angel in July 2022. Gorby said they are still working on a plan for the old hospital facility. The new facility will be located about 1.5 miles from the current facility.

“When we get closer to moving into the new hospital, we will be able to talk about what our plan is,” said Gorby.

Gorby said that there aren’t any plans to reopen Angel’s labor and delivery unit at this time.

Lilly Knoepp is Senior Regional Reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She has served as BPR’s first fulltime reporter covering Western North Carolina since 2018. She is from Franklin, NC. She returns to WNC after serving as the assistant editor of Women@Forbes and digital producer of the Forbes podcast network. She holds a master’s degree in international journalism from the City University of New York and earned a double major from UNC-Chapel Hill in religious studies and political science.
Related Content