The recent pressures from Hurricane Helene have led to the temporary closure of Mission Health’s CarePartners Health Services in Asheville. This disruption has significantly impacted rehabilitative care, affecting over 50 patients and requiring more than 250 employees to seek temporary roles within the broader healthcare system, according to internal emails and employee accounts obtained by Asheville Watchdog.
CarePartners CEO Jeffrey E. Brown explained in an email on October 7th that the decision to temporarily close the Care Partners Rehab Hospital was a direct consequence of the storm. A surge of patients overwhelmed the healthcare system, compounded by widespread water outages across Asheville. Despite efforts by Mission owner HCA Healthcare, including water trucks and FEMA’s assistance in drilling a well at Mission Hospital, the water shortage severely hampered operations. Mayor Esther Manheimer confirmed these hospital support measures in an October 8th event discussing the healthcare situation with officials.
The closure necessitated the transfer of approximately 50 inpatient rehabilitation patients, alongside several long-term acute care patients and eight hospice patients. These individuals were relocated to various settings, including home care, skilled nursing facilities, other inpatient rehabilitation programs, and UNC Health Caldwell in Lenoir, which is over an hour’s drive away, as reported by a CarePartners employee.
Initial confusion arose regarding the decision-making process for patient transfers. Multiple CarePartners employees informed The Watchdog that HCA and Mission leadership attributed the closure to a “state-mandated” directive, suggesting that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) had enforced the transfers.
However, NCDHHS clarified to Asheville Watchdog that the patient transfers were requested by HCA, not mandated by the state. NCDHHS spokesperson Hannah Jones stated, “Patient transfers are routine following disasters like hurricanes to help better serve the medical needs in the community.”
Mission Emergency Rooms Remain Operational
HCA Healthcare spokesperson Nancy Lindell denied that Mission informed employees of any state mandate for closures. She confirmed that HCA had requested the patient transfers. Lindell did not address inquiries about the employees affected but issued a statement on October 10th explaining the rationale behind the closure of the care partners rehab hospital.
“Our emergency rooms remain open, and we have the staff and resources to treat anyone who needs emergency care and those seeking the high levels of care available at Mission Hospital,” Lindell stated. “Our biggest need at this time is for city water to be restored.”
Lindell emphasized the temporary nature of the situation: “This is temporary and routine patient movement, and CarePartners Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital will reopen.” She added, “At this time, the situation is fluid as recovery efforts continue. We will evaluate capacity needs on a continuing basis and will adjust plans based on what’s in the best interest of our patients, our caregivers and our greater Western North Carolina community.”
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Mission Health confirmed that all other CarePartners services, encompassing outpatient rehabilitation, home health, and PACE, would continue operating. State and federal agencies initiated support operations at Mission shortly after the hurricane, helping to alleviate strain on the emergency department.
Emails from Mission Hospital CEO Greg Lowe and CEO Brown, reviewed by The Watchdog, indicated that leadership at HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Health facilities in Asheville aimed to increase capacity for acute care patients. Decongesting the care partners rehab hospital was a key part of this strategy.
In his email to staff, Brown acknowledged the difficult decisions being made: “As recovery efforts continue, state and local emergency management teams continue to assess what is best for this area,” Brown wrote. “Some very hard decisions are being made at this time for the good of our community.”
Brown’s memo further explained the decision to transfer patients: “[O]ne of those is the decision to de-risk facilities by discharging patients to safer settings outside of the affected area,”. “Our inpatient leadership and case management teams (Rehab Hospital; Asheville Specialty; and Solace [hospice care]) are actively working on discharge plans for all current patients.”
Lowe’s message to staff on October 6th highlighted the lack of running water as the system’s “biggest concern” and provided more details about what he termed a routine patient transition.
“To ensure that we can create capacity for acute care needs, we have made the decision to temporarily relocate selected stable patients from Mission Hospital to hospitals outside the area hardest hit,” Lowe explained. “In addition, patients from Asheville Specialty Hospital and CarePartners Inpatient Rehabilitation hospital will be transferred. We anticipate these transfers to affect fewer than 100 patients across all three facilities.”
“This routine patient movement will free up resources at Mission Hospital to address the most urgent medical needs of our community, as well as ensure access for high-acuity patients including trauma, stroke and cardiovascular conditions as rescue and recovery efforts continue,” Lowe added. “It will also hopefully help provide additional relief for you and your teams, since we know you’ve been working around the clock.”
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CarePartners ‘Will Reopen,’ Spokesperson Asserts
A CarePartners supervisor, speaking anonymously to The Watchdog due to concerns about retribution, revealed that over 250 employees were affected by HCA’s decision to temporarily shut down CarePartners facilities. This supervisor also estimated that more than 50 patients were relocated from the rehabilitation and hospice programs alone of the care partners rehab hospital.
“We got word last Wednesday [Oct. 2] … that Greg Lowe actually came here and talked to our leadership,” the supervisor recounted. “I got a phone call after that meeting, and basically was told that we were given instructions to get our census to zero to offload the need for resources at Mission Hospital.”
Another rehabilitation employee mentioned that staff were initially informed last week about “gradually whittling down our patient census,” which was already reduced due to ongoing construction in two units.
“Then Sunday [Oct. 6], we were told all patients were meant to be evacuated by the end of the day, and it was a very quick turnaround. So at first we were told Sunday morning that we needed to offload as many patients as we could. Then several hours later, we were told that we had to be at zero by the end of the day,” the supervisor detailed the rapid escalation.
HCA Healthcare officials described the closure of the CarePartners campus on Sweeten Creek Road as a standard procedure to liberate resources for Mission Hospital’s strained emergency operations following tropical storm Helene. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego.
While the supervisor acknowledged understanding for the natural disaster and HCA’s support, concerns remained regarding communication surrounding the closures and the job security of employees at the care partners rehab hospital.
“I truthfully feel like there was maybe a lack of communication amongst the division to the actual staff members,” the supervisor commented on the internal communication process. “They basically told leadership that they were the ones that needed to disseminate the information to the rest of the staff.”
According to the supervisor, administrators are actively seeking alternative roles for CarePartner employees to “help supplement” still-operational services.
“What HCA told us was that certain numbers of us could apply to their Hope Fund, which is their employee support fund, if we had damage to our homes that we needed funding to pay for, or if we hadn’t met medical deductibles,” the supervisor added regarding employee support mechanisms.
“In addition to that, they developed a redeployment department, where they gather the information of all the employees for here at CarePartners, and have been kind of systematically redeploying them in areas that have a need,” the supervisor described the redeployment efforts.
Mission did not respond to inquiries about the future employment status of these employees.
NCDHHS spokesperson Jones stated that nursing staff and hospital leadership contacted each patient’s attending physician to inform them of the transfer location.
“Both the patient and their families were involved in the decision-making process,” Jones confirmed patient and family inclusion in transfer decisions from the care partners rehab hospital.
Family members seeking to reconnect with patients within the Mission Health system were advised to call the patient reunification hotline at (828) 213-1111, which also serves as Mission’s main line.
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 [email protected]. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
