Asheville Health & Medical

Western North Carolina provides a number of high-quality, compassionate and affordable health-care facilities that specialize in a range of services.  In the late 1990s, Asheville’s two private, acute-care hospitals – St. Joseph’s and Memorial Mission – merged to create Mission Hospitals, an 800-bed, 90-acre hilltop campus that provides nearly all medical and surgical services for its patients. More than 600 physicians and 5,000 staff are employed by Mission Hospitals, making it one of the major employers in Western North Carolina. 

In 2003, US News and World Report ranked Mission Hospitals as one of the top 50 hospitals in the country for heart and heart surgery services. Additionally, Solucient named Mission Hospitals one of the top 100 hospitals in the country in 2004 and 2005.  Part of the VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network, the VA Medical Center is a 112-bed acute-care facility along with a separate 120-bed Extended Care and Rehabilitation Center that serves Western North Carolina and parts of South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. The hospital offers primary, tertiary and long-term care in medicine, surgery, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, oncology, dentistry and geriatrics. Also a teaching hospital, the VA Medical Center provides state-of-the-art technology along with programs in research and education.

Thoms Rehabilitation Health Services in Asheville is a 100-bed, not-for-profit, private hospital that treats catastrophic illness and injury. Offering traditional and specialized rehabilitation for physical, mental and developmental impairments, Thoms also operates Thoms at Mission – a 20-bed inpatient acute rehabilitation unit on the campus of Mission Hospitals.  Formed in 1933, Transylvania Community Hospital in Brevard operates 94 beds and employs 40 physicians and 80 consulting physicians in acute care, diabetes education, WorkWell occupational health, continence care, labor and delivery, critical and intensive care, outpatient services, rehabilitation therapy, home health care and transitional care.

Since 1900, the Sisters of Mercy have provided the Asheville area with quality health care. Four Urgent Care centers operate in Buncombe County and serve more patients than any other urgent-care facility in the area.   A collaboration of Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital and Health Services, Visiting Health Professionals, MountainCARE and Mountain Area Hospice, Community Care Partners functions under two centers in Asheville in addition to satellite facilities, patient homes and other locations. A non-profit organization, Community Care Partners provides orthopedic, neuroscience, cardiac/pulmonary and chronic care palliative services.

Three regional chapters of the American Red Cross – the Asheville-Mountain Area Chapter, the Haywood County Chapter and the Henderson County Chapter – have been in operation for nearly a century. These chapters offer health and safety classes and sponsor blood drives throughout the area.