ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Buncombe County wants to join North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein's lawsuit against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health, seeking $3 million in damages for what it described as excessive wait times emergency services staff has experienced while transporting patients to the emergency room.
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, Buncombe County filed a motion to intervene in Stein's lawsuit against HCA for breach of contract, requesting a permanent injunction and compliance with the system's obligations to provide emergency and trauma services and oncology services at the same level of quality provided at Mission before HCA purchased the hospital.
In part, the proposed complaint states:
In the years following their acquisition of the previously nonprofit Mission hospital system in early 2019, Defendants have disregarded their statutory, contractual, and common-law obligations, allowing emergency services at the Emergency Department at Mission Hospital (the “Mission ER”) to deteriorate dramatically. In particular, during relevant times, Defendants intentionally understaffed the Mission ER so that Buncombe County’s EMS crews often experienced excessive wait times to transfer patients to the Mission ER, requiring EMS personnel to attend to emergency room patients long after arriving at the Mission ER.
PATIENTS WAIT HOURS FOR ER ADMISSION DUE TO MISSION'S EXCESSIVE AMBULANCE HANDOFF TIMES
Central to the motion are EMS wait times at Mission, which increased from approximately 9:41 minutes in the first quarter of 2020 to 17:41 minutes in the third quarter of 2023, despite numerous requests and demands from county staff and management to expedite care in the ER, county officials said in a news release. At the same time, “90th percentile times” – the time in which 90% of EMS-to-ER patient transfers occur – increased from approximately 16 minutes to more than 32 minutes.
These 90th percentile times far exceed the 20-minute national standard reported by the National Emergency Medical Services Information System, the release said.
NC ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH STEIN ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT AGAINST HCA HEALTHCARE
As a result of Mission “parking” ER patients with Buncombe County EMS, taxpayers have provided a benefit to HCA of more than $3 million since the beginning of 2020, and the county seeks damages in that amount as outlined in the proposed complaint, the news release said.
Stein filed the lawsuit against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health on Dec. 14, 2023.
HCA Healthcare and Mission Health are also facing problems at the federal level. After an investigation, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued notice that Mission Hospital was in “immediate jeopardy” of losing CMS funding because of non-compliance issues.
MISSION HOSPITAL UNDER THREAT OF LOSING MEDICARE FUNDING DUE TO NON-COMPLIANCE ISSUES
According to the news release, county officials believe it was only after the actions by Stein and CMS that Mission began to take action to adequately staff its ER.
"However, at any time Mission may choose to revert to previous practices, which both endanger patient safety in emergency situations and run up costs incurred by the county," the news release said.
The county’s proposed intervenor complaint was filed in Buncombe County Superior Court and will be assigned to the NC Business Court.