People seeking better health have been coming to Asheville and the surrounding mountains for decades, drawing upon the area’s reputation for restorative air, healing waters, and stimulating altitude. That history continues today, giving the Asheville area one of the state’s highest concentrations of physicians.
Leading the way is the region’s largest hospital system, the 1,100-plus-bed Mission Health System, which operates six hospitals in Western North Carolina, along with numerous outpatient and surgery centers.
Mission Health traces its roots to the 1880s when the local women of the “Little Flower Mission” paid weekly visits to the homes of the needy. Since then, it has been recognized for delivering world-class care to the people it serves.
Mission Health’s Size and Scope
Mission Health employs approximately 10,000 team members, including more than 1,000 physicians trained in the latest developments in health care, medicine, and technology.
Mission’s facilities include the flagship Mission Hospital in Asheville, along with:
- Angel Medical Center in Franklin.
- Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine.
- Highlands-Cashiers Hospital in Highlands.
- McDowell Hospital in Marion.
- Transylvania Regional Hospital in Brevard.
- Post-acute care provider, CarePartners.
- Long-term acute care provider, Asheville Specialty Hospital.
- The region’s only dedicated Level II trauma center.
- Mission Children’s Hospital, the region’s only children’s hospital.
Mission Health is Recognized for its Achievements
Truven Health Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters, has recognized Mission Health as one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems 2012-2015. Mission Health is the only health system in the nation to receive this recognition four years in a row, and the only health system in North Carolina to achieve Top 15 recognition. Mission Hospital has been named one of Truven Health’s Top 100 for seven consecutive years, and Mission Heart has been named by Truven Health a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital 10 times.
Just five hospitals in the U.S. have been named to the Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital list more times than Mission Heart. According to Truven, if all cardiovascular hospitals in the nation performed at the same level as Mission and the other top 50 heart hospitals, more than 8,000 lives would be saved and nearly 3,500 medical complications would be avoided each year.
Mission Children’s Hospital is a Center for Success
Mission Children’s Hospital has 60 board-certified pediatric sub-specialists in more than 20 different specialties. With 130 beds, Mission Children’s Hospital averages 3,000 patient admissions to its pediatric inpatient units, 4,500 outpatient pediatric surgeries, and nearly 14,000 pediatric emergency department visits annually. Each year, about 700 ill and premature newborns receive lifesaving care in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Babies admitted to the NICU at Mission Children’s Hospital go home 13 days earlier than the national average.
Learn More about Mission Health System
Mission Health’s focus is, has been and will always be to ensure that high quality, convenient, accessible, and affordable care is available to everyone, while ensuring the ability to meet the region’s population health needs for decades to come. Mission Health’s ultimate goal is to support all people to “Be Well, Get Well, and Stay Well.”
Mission Health’s network of primary care physicians and specialists provide quality convenient care close to where you live or work. To find a provider close to you, visit mission-health.org.
This post is adapted from our annual Welcome to Western North Carolina magazine. Click here to read more online, or click here to order your own free copy. For comprehensive descriptions of all of Western North Carolina’s health care centers, click here.