The North Carolina Supreme Court has granted Mission Hospital’s request for a temporary stay of a lower court’s decision to grant 67 acute care beds to AdventHealth nearly three years ago. 

The order, delivered without comment, came just two days after attorneys for Mission Hospital filed a motion seeking the temporary stay and arguing that a three-judge panel’s ruling in the state’s appellate court this June should remain up for debate. The motion, first reported by Asheville Watchdog, created further uncertainty about whether the region would see additional healthcare competition.

The 67 beds are part of Florida-based AdventHealth’s plans to build a 222-bed hospital in Weaverville that would serve Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, and Graham counties. The company had started grading work at a 30-plus acre site west of I-26. 

The Supreme Court’s allowance of a stay halts legal action until further consideration can take place. There is currently no deadline for a Supreme Court decision.

“Mission Hospital accepts thousands of transfers each year from other hospitals that have available beds – including facilities currently seeking approval to expand – because patients need high-level medical care only available in Western North Carolina at our hospital,” Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell said. “Not all acute care beds are the same. Instead of adding more beds at facilities that are unable to provide the complex medical and surgical care needed, the region would be better served by expanding bed capacity at Mission Hospital. We consider it a privilege to care for our region’s sickest patients but need more beds to do so.”

AdventHealth said the stay says nothing about what North Carolina’s highest court thinks about the case.

“It is important to note that this stay is not an indication of the court’s thinking,” AdventHealth spokesperson Victoria Dunkle said when asked for the system’s response to the judge’s order. 

“This would be like ordering a combo meal at a drive-thru and then taking credit for securing the drink and fries in the deal – the drink and fries automatically come with the combo and everybody gets them,” she said. “In these situations, a stay is in place whenever a petition for discretionary review is filed. HCA/Mission filed an unnecessary motion to obtain a stay that was already in place.”  

This complex legal battle for beds is being staged on the field of certificate of need (CON) law, a North Carolina requirement that medical facilities seek the state’s permission when they want to expand, add services, or buy expensive equipment. 

AdventHealth won approval for beds in 2022

AdventHealth won approval for the 67 acute care beds in late 2022, but Mission  disputed the decision, using the CON’s appeal process. In June, a three-court panel of the state’s appellate court ruled in AdventHealth’s favor, a ruling that some saw as the final decision in the case.

On July 23, Mission attorneys filed a motion with the North Carolina Supreme Court seeking the temporary stay and requesting the court consider two factors: “substantial prejudice” on the part of DHSR in rejecting Mission’s application and AdventHealth’s proposal for the beds not meeting NCDHHS policy requiring new hospitals have a general operating room. 

Both NCDHHS and AdventHealth are defendants in the case.

Mission alleged substantial prejudice because “DHHS did not allow eight attendees to speak at a certain time at the public hearing because they were purported employees of Mission Memorial or employees of one its affiliated hospitals or entities,” according to a summary in the June 18 appellate court decision. The public hearing was held shortly after AdventHealth, Mission and Novant Health applied for the 67 beds.

“The partial answers that the Court of Appeals has given are contradictory and confusing,” Mission’s attorneys wrote in their July 23 motion, arguing the appellate court failed to precisely define the criteria for a finding of “substantial prejudice.”

The motion asked the court to decide whether NCDHHS had violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it changed its requirement on the general operating room and then to decide whether “this error substantially prejudiced Mission.”

According to AdventHealth’s current proposed plans, the Weaverville hospital would have “A state-of-the-art Surgery Suite for general and specialty.”

AdventHealth will file a response in the case, Dunkle told The Watchdog last Friday.

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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