Who We Are

MISSION STATEMENT

Promoting safe, quality, affordable local healthcare for the people of Mitchell and Yancey Counties in Western North Carolina

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SEARCH is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that grew out of a community action group founded in the summer of 2017 in response to the announcement that labor and delivery services would be closing at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital (BRRH) in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.  SEARCH represents residents of both Mitchell County and Yancey County; our hospital, founded in 1954, is in Mitchell County, and it serves both counties.  Our Employer Identification Number is 83-4030250.

 

Since 2017 SEARCH has tackled a variety of issues for our communities including the future of our hospital once labor and delivery closed on September 30, 2017.  We learned in 2018 that HCA Healthcare, one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the US, planned to acquire Mission Health System, so SEARCH collaborated with other community groups across the 18 counties served by Mission Health System to ensure that the needs of our smaller rural hospitals would be fairly represented in the sales agreement.  We continue to monitor that the conditions of the sales agreement are being followed.

 

Since the sale of the hospital we have also monitored the status of ambulance services (previously contracted with Mission Health System) for our two counties, the future of the Toe River Health District, and conducted a services of Community Conversations with residents to learn of their concerns about health and healthcare here.