HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —

A North Carolina administrative judge has upheld the state’s decision to award AdventHealth the Certificate of Need to build a 67-bed hospital in Weaverville, the company announced on Friday.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services approved AdventHealth’s CON application to build the facility in November 2022. HCA/Mission appealed the decision, and the case went to trial nearly a year later.

“AdventHealth joins with the people of Western North Carolina to celebrate this decision and the positive impact this new hospital will have on the area’s health care,” AdventHealth Hendersonville President and CEO Brandon Nudd said in a news release. “We are excited to reach this point in the work to provide whole-person care to the people of Buncombe, Graham, Madison and Yancey counties.”

A spokeswoman for HCA Mission Health said the administrative judge’s decision won’t solve the need for higher-level health care in the region.

“We are disappointed in the Office of Administrative Hearings’ decision to uphold the awarding of 67 acute care beds to AdventHealth. This will not solve the need to transport high-level, critical care patients out of the area when our region’s advanced care beds – only available at Mission Hospital – are full,” Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell said via email. “Mission Health remains committed to providing the region’s most advanced healthcare and will continue to take our community’s evolving health needs into account as we look to the future.”

This spring, AdventHealth said it had purchased more than 30 acres in Weaverville for the community hospital. The faith-based, not-for-profit, multispecialty hospital will feature leading-edge technology, surgery services, a labor and delivery unit and an emergency department, AdventHealth officials said.
“Over the next few weeks AdventHealth will select the architect and general contractor,” Nudd said in the news release. “We are excited to share more design details for this new hospital in the near future.”
In the meantime, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said the area would need 26 additional acute care beds by 2026. Earlier this week, AdventHealth officials said they planned to submit a Certificate of Need application to the state on June 17 for the additional beds. Those would be included in the Weaverville facility, bringing the total number of beds there to 93.
Hospital officials have planned community listening sessions about the additional 26 beds later this month.