Patients Union Executive Director Jamila Headley said the stories shared during the vigil reflected deeper problems within the healthcare system.<\/p>\n
“These aren’t regular stories of just a glitch or a small incident in our health care system,” Headley said. “These are horrible accounts of real harm and pain done to patients across the country at their most vulnerable.”<\/p>\n
![\"JUNE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7c18fe73-c7cd-4098-96fa-e2c8316e60f7-10_11MissionHealthVigilLLPKG.mxfframe3356.png\"\/)
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JUNE 29, 2026 -Former patients, healthcare workers and community members gathered Monday evening at First Congregational Church in Asheville for a vigil over what they call the decline of Mission Hospital. (Photo: WLOS Staff)<\/p>\n
Mission Hospital is the only Level I Trauma Center in western North Carolina, serving 18 counties across the region.<\/p>\n
Several speakers argued the hospital’s quality of care has declined since HCA Healthcare purchased Mission Hospital in 2019. Mission had previously operated as a nonprofit hospital.<\/p>\n
MISSION HOSPITAL INVESTS $10M IN EMPLOYEE PAY RAISES TO BOOST STAFFING, CARE QUALITY<\/a><\/p>\n “I’m also aware of folks who say that the quality of the care that they’ve received has changed significantly since HCA took over,” Richardson said.<\/p>\n Asheville resident Leslie Boyd said she believes financial decisions have come at the expense of patient care.<\/p>\n “You have a whole pie, and that’s patient care,” Boyd said. “When you cut out 15, 16, 20 percent, that’s 15, 16, 20 percent of services you’re not going to be providing. So, if you’re in it to make money, people are going to die.”<\/p>\n Mission Hospital has received four Immediate Jeopardy citations from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) over the past five years. An Immediate Jeopardy finding is the most serious enforcement action CMS can issue, indicating that a hospital’s noncompliance has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm, impairment or death to a patient.<\/p>\n MISSION HOSPITAL IS NO LONGER UNDER ‘IMMEDIATE JEOPARDY,’ CEO SAYS<\/a><\/p>\n