Mission Hospital to spend more than $10 million on employee raises
Mission Hospital said more than $10 million in raises will reach most workers, including nurses and CNAs, as Asheville’s largest hospital keeps battling staffing pressure.
Mission Hospital is putting more than $10 million into employee pay raises, a move aimed at a majority of its full-time, part-time and PRN workers as Asheville’s largest hospital tries to steady staffing.
The raises are separate from the hospital’s annual merit increases and are meant to reach nurses, certified nursing assistants, medical assistants and other employees who keep patient care moving behind the scenes. Mission said the money is part of HCA Healthcare’s workforce investment strategy, underscoring how central pay has become to recruiting and keeping staff in a hospital where every vacancy can affect how quickly patients are seen and how safely units are staffed.
For Buncombe County patients and workers, the real question is whether more money will translate into fewer shortages, less turnover and fewer disruptions on the floors. Mission recently said it exceeded its goal of hiring 90 medical-surgical nurses in 90 days, a sign of how hard the hospital has been pushing to build up its nursing ranks after years of pressure on staffing.
The announcement comes against a longer backdrop of scrutiny over Mission Health, the six-hospital system that serves western North Carolina. In 2019, HCA Healthcare completed its purchase of Mission Health for about $1.5 billion, a deal that also created Dogwood Health Trust, the nonprofit that now holds the proceeds. Since then, staffing and safety have remained major concerns for many employees and local observers.
Mission’s unionized nurses ratified a new three-year contract in 2024 that included wage increases and patient-safety measures aimed at retention, another indication that the hospital has been trying to answer labor concerns with compensation. Bonnie Meadows, president of the North Carolina Nurses Association, has said pay increases can lead to better patient care and stronger communities.
The latest raise package will not resolve every complaint about Mission’s operations. But it is a direct attempt to address one of the hospital’s most persistent problems, whether Asheville’s biggest medical system can keep enough experienced staff on hand to serve patients reliably.
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