The hearing August 19 at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College was a routine part of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) certificate of need process. It was an opportunity for state regulators to hear public comments and presentations on the competing proposals before them.
But today, even routine administrative healthcare proceedings have become highly charged.
With more than a hundred people packed into Ferguson Auditorium to comment on 92 hospital beds coming to Buncombe County, the hearing laid bare the anger the community still feels towards Mission Hospital and its corporate owner HCA, as well as distrust of the certificate of need process that recently awarded Mission 95 more beds over community opposition…