Integrated healthcare facility coming to Grassy Creek
Mountain Community Health Partnership held a groundbreaking Friday for its new development on a 105-acre lot in Grassy Creek.
MCHP’s planned 27-thousand-foot facility is designed as an integrated health community, featuring medical and mental health care, as well as therapy services. It will also house an on-site pharmacy.
The new facility will eventually absorb the current MCHP clinics in Spruce Pine and Micaville.
Upon its completion, currently slated for September 2026, the facility will also serve as MCHP’s headquarters, which are currently located in Bakersville.
According to the organization’s official press release for the project, “the expansion will enhance MCHP’s capacity to serve the growing needs of the community and contribute to the overall improvement of healthcare infrastructure in the region.”
Community leaders and representatives of MCHP’s project partners (Vannoy Construction, WithersRavenel, and Charlotte-based LS3P Associates) crowded together under the event’s marquee tent to wait out a sudden shower before the ceremony began.
MCHP’s Chief Medical Officer, Patricia Hall, who is also a family care physician, spoke of the new development as a commitment to her organization’s community-minded mission of serving everyone in the surrounding counties regardless of income level or ability to pay. Hall said that the new facility would “provide potential development” for future expansion of services.
“We will be starting with four medical providers here, though we’re hoping to add more,” she said.
Introduced by Jamie McMahan, MCHP’s director of grants and business development, Mitchell County Commissioner Jeff Harding placed the project in context with the other building plans and programs occurring in the county, including the recently opened YMCA in Spruce Pine. “This is a huge undertaking in our county,” Harding said, “with $100 million in construction currently.”
He ended by saying that the “vision of others means it’s a great day for us all.”
Patti Jensen of the Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce spoke of how the enhanced services that would be provided by the new facility reaffirmed “a commitment to this community.”
“This will serve generations to come,” Jensen said.
Brendan Riley, the vice president of government relations and external affairs for the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, drove up from Raleigh for the event. Riley said that there are approximately 700 similar clinical sites in North Carolina, adding that “we are proud to call MCHP one of our members.”
“Health centers save lives,” he stressed, and said that with MCHP’s project, “we are turning to a new page in comprehensive care.”
When MCHP’s CEO, Tim Evans, got up to speak, he addressed concerns about the Federal Government’s future cuts to Medicaid.
“We have some turbulent times ahead,” Evans said. “But we’re here to not just break ground on this project, but on the future.”