ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A North Carolina hospital says it expects no significant job losses if it is taken over by a Tennessee company, as it hopes.
The board at Mission Hospital in Asheville voted this week to be acquired by Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. Mission executives said the move would provide the hospital a stronger position for years to come.
The merger with HCA by Mission Hospital comes as the Chattanooga-based Erlanger Health System prepares on April 1 to take over Murphy Medical Center nearby in the western North Carolina town of Murphy. The 25-bed Murphy Hospital agreed in January to merge with Erlanger to help provide stronger networks of physicians, surgeons and other medical services.
At Mission hospital, officials said there would be some changes in jobs and eliminations of some positions, but they said it should be nothing more than what would occur because of "market demand."
The Asheville hospital said it expected the move would provide new jobs, especially for clinical staffers.
"Mission has put itself in a position because of (CEO Dr. Ron Paulus') leadership and his team's work to take Mission from a good regional hospital to one of the top 15 hospitals in the country," said board member Tom Oreck.
HCA is a for-profit health company with 177 hospitals and 240,000 employees in 20 states and the United Kingdom, incuding three hospitals in Chattanooga - Parkridge, Parkride East and Parkridge Valley. Mission would be HCA's first hospital in North Carolina.
Mission said it has about 12,000 employees, including more than 1,000 physicians on staff. It has eliminated 500 positions in the last five years, Paulus said.
Paulus said whatever changes are made, "they would be much more favorable than if we had continued on independently."
HCA Healthcare's chairman and CEO Milton Johnson said in a news release that the company is "excited to formalize discussions with (Mission) about how we can help continue their impressive legacy."
An HCA spokesman would not discuss details, since the agreement has not been completed.