Health care companies in Henderson County, North Carolina, have submitted certificate of need applications to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, seeking to expand medical facilities at two care sites in Mills River. These applications, filed by Fletcher Hospital Inc. and the Henderson County Hospital Corporation, are currently under review, with public hearings scheduled for next month.
Fletcher Hospital Inc. has requested approval for 19 additional acute care beds for AdventHealth Hendersonville. This $16 million project is based on a need identified in the 2026 State Medical Facilities Plan. If approved, the new beds are projected to be operational by May 2030.
Both Fletcher Hospital Inc. and the Henderson County Hospital Corporation have also applied for new fixed MRI scanners. Fletcher’s proposal is for an MRI scanner at AdventHealth Hendersonville, with a projected cost of $7.8 million and an estimated completion in October 2028. The Henderson County Hospital Corporation seeks an MRI scanner for Pardee Imaging and Diagnostic Center, a project estimated at $10.8 million, with completion anticipated by April 2028. The need for both MRI scanners was also determined by the 2026 State Medical Facilities Plan.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will hold public hearings on these applications. The hearing for the acute care bed proposal is set for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Later that morning, at 11 a.m., hearings for the MRI scanner applications will take place. All hearings will be held in the Kaplan Auditorium of the Henderson County Public Library – Main Campus, located at 301 N. Washington St., Hendersonville, N.C.
The NCDHHS is accepting written comments from the public on these proposals. Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 1, 2026. Submissions can be sent as an email attachment to [email protected] or mailed to the Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section, Division of Health Service Regulation, 2704 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-2704.
While this development is centered in North Carolina, the process of certificate of need applications for healthcare expansion is a common regulatory framework across many states, including South Carolina, where institutions like Beaufort Memorial Hospital and Naval Hospital Beaufort operate within similar oversight structures to manage healthcare resource allocation and ensure community needs are met.
