'We are the mice': Brevard public forum reveals disturbing local stories of HCA Healthcare

BREVARD - The city of Brevard is a mouse compared to the corporation that owns its local hospital, Transylvania Regional.

That’s how residents and the city’s mayor, Maureen Copelof, described themselves Aug. 18 compared to HCA Healthcare at the first of 10 community forums meant to gather information on what is going on at Transylvania Regional Hospital, part of the Mission Health system.

A community council plans to take information from the meetings and elsewhere back to Transylvania Regional Hospital and likely HCA, asking for improvements there, even as the city is in the midst of an anti-trust lawsuit against the health care giant.

In a room of nearly 100 people at Transylvania County Library, nearly 30, mostly senior area residents spoke about their recent experiences at the only hospital in Transylvania County, where more than 33,000 live, 31.1% of whom are older than 65, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. 

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“We are the mice trying to overcome an enormous force,” said Peter Chaveas, a metaphor Copelof would pick up on later. 

Many at the meeting praised the Brevard hospital’s doctors, nurses and other staff in the same breath as they expressed big concerns about long wait times, inconvenient transfers to other hospitals, labyrinthine billing situations and fears HCA has done irreparable damage to the community’s health care system.

Residents, who had the option to remain anonymous as they spoke, presented a litany of fears, frustrations and sometimes disturbing stories.

Ken Voltz, first to speak, said his wife Kathy recently had a heart attack. 

He immediately choked up telling the story of what happened next.

“We went to the emergency room in Transylvania,” he said. “We were told there were no available staffed rooms and so we spent two days in the emergency room. I have the highest praise for all the staff there. The doctors were excellent. The nurses were attentive.”

But staff told him Kathy would have to be transferred because of “lack of facilities.” 

They tried to get a transfer to Mission Hospital in Asheville, Voltz said, but it was not accepting transfers.

“We’re so lucky,” Voltz said, breaking into sobs. He said his daughter had a roommate who did some consulting work at Atrium Health in Concord. 

The roommate had contacts, the Voltz couple was able to get a number and Kathy Voltz went two hours and 30 minutes east to get the care she needed.

“We spent the next six days there under treatment, doing all the things the Transylvania Regional could not do,” Voltz said. “I spent eight days in the hospital sleeping on chairs, holding her hand while she was completely unaware of what was happening. It was four days before she even recognized me.”

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After multiple MRIs, blood tests and a teleconference with a neurologist, Kathy Voltz was released.

“All I can say is, I really, really wish that we could have had the care here and not had to go out to another hospital,” Voltz said.

“We are so, so glad that Kathy is well,” Copelof said, embracing the couple.

Copelof may be Mayor of Brevard but at the Aug. 18 meeting she wore another hat: member of the newly formed Community Council For Transylvania Regional Hospital.

The group was founded about six months ago, Copelof said, created to make sure the community has “adequate health care at our local hospital.”

Several of its members also met with HCA CEO Sam Hazen, Copelof said, a defining moment in May.

“We talked about how important our hospital was to this community,” she said, adding some of them also asked him to sell the hospital back.

“He gave us a pretty firm no,” she said. “But I’m going to keep asking. My personal goal is I would like our hospital to be sold so that it is not a for-profit hospital.” 

Mission was a nonprofit before HCA purchased it for $1.5 billion in 2019.

Copelof and other members of the council echoed community concerns about what they characterized as a system that was in decline, slowly leaving the community — they said a rehabilitation center, an elderly day care center and a maternity department all left since the HCA takeover. 

Council member Mark Weinstein noted that it was important to separate what that group is trying to do with other matters.

Currently the city of Brevard is suing HCA and Mission in a consolidated lawsuit with the city of Asheville, Buncombe County and soon Madison County.

Previously:HCA, Mission hit with 2nd WNC antitrust suit in a year, this one from a Transylvania city

“We need to consolidate everything and the entire (council) needs to figure out which ones are systemic and which ones are not,” Weinstein said. He and Copelof said the council is trying to see which complaints are repeated without fail at the meetings. That will give them a better idea of how to emphasize the biggest areas of need in the report.

“After we hear everybody and digest the information as best we can, I think the council wants to end up with a list of issues that we want to talk to (Transylvania Regional Hospital) about," Weinstein said. "I believe we will tell them this is what we’re hearing (and ask them) ‘What are you hearing? Because maybe we’re not understanding something.’” 

While Copelof has said she wants the hospital back in the hands of the community, Weinstein said the conversation is ongoing and there’s room for improvement.

“We still need care here,” Copelof said. “We still need, when you go to the emergency room, you’re not left there for three days and have to rely on your daughter’s friend finding you a bed in a hospital somewhere.”

She then recounted another story about an anonymous friend whose husband, she said, had appendicitis.

He went to Transylvania Regional Hospital but there was no surgeon.

The couple sat in the emergency room for most of the night, Copelof said. The man was eventually transferred to another hospital the next morning, one that was several hours away.

But when he got there, his appendix burst. 

He survived, but the surgery was “more complicated than if it was done here,” Copelof said.

By the end of the ordeal, the wife had to order a service to drive her husband back home.

“Documenting these instances when someone’s life is in jeopardy because of the wait,” Copelof said, “is important to bring back to HCA. You’re right. We’re the mice. I’m the mayor of a little tiny town. They’re a massive corporation. But we’re going to speak with the power of the voice of all of the people.” 

Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.