If you’ve spent time on the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau, you may have heard praises aimed at the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.
Those praises spilled over into a forum that was held in Cashiers last week by Gibbins Advisors, the independent monitor of HCA Healthcare, who purchased Mission Health in 2019. Mission Health has been the parent company of the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital since 2014.
A lot can be said for having a thriving hospital in a small community, and one of the things that locals care most about is access to good healthcare in their area without having to drive hours to a major city to receive services.
Last week’s meeting was a change in tune from the previous meeting Gibbins Advisors had at the Glenville-Cashiers Recreation Center in early 2020. Mission Health had just been purchased less than a year before the meeting, and people here were concerned that HCA had no desire to provide quality care on the plateau.
When a big healthcare company steps in to take over a rural hospital, it is natural that some trepidation or fear will set in about the future of the little guy.
But the consensus this month was that HCA has lived up to its expectations at the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital and has been putting in the time, money, and effort to comply with the 15 commitments set forth in the asset purchasing agreement back in 2019.
People from retired Highlands-Cashiers Health Foundation board chair Dr. Walter Clark to Highlands-Cashiers Hospital Tom Neal and others who attended the forum were impressed with how HCA has handled the acquisition of Mission Health, specifically the Highlands hospital, in recent years.
Clark went so far as to say it was a godsend that HCA purchased the hospital because the facility was losing millions of dollars year over year leading up to the sale. Rural hospitals cannot survive on their own in America, he said.
As one meeting attendee said, hopefully Dogwood Health Trust is not in position to have to shut down our local hospital. From most accounts, the hospital is doing a great job in the community.