HCA creates new division, names president

SOURCE: Nashville Business Journal

HCA Healthcare Inc. has found a leader for its North Carolina division.

Greg Lowe has been named president of the newly created Asheville-based division, according to a news release. The division is comprised of the six-hospital Mission Health System, which HCA bought for $1.5 billion earlier this month.

Mission Health covers western North Carolina and employs about 12,000 people.

HCA (NYSE: HCA) is Nashville’s largest publicly traded company, with $46.6 billion of revenue in 2018, according to Nashville Business Journal research. The new division gives the company 16 divisions total, encompassing 185 hospitals across 21 states.

Lowe was previously CEO of HCA’s Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals in Richmond, Virginia, and had been CEO of Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce, Florida, according to the release.

Terence van Arkel has been named chief financial officer of the North Carolina division.

“Greg is a talented leader and system operator with experience expanding medical services to meet the health care needs of the community,” Chuck Hall, president of HCA Healthcare’s National Group, said in the release. “Greg and Terence head up an experienced, patient-focused North Carolina Division leadership team to support the continued success of Mission Health.”

HCA is investing $232 million in capital improvements to Mission Health facilities. The company also plans to build a replacement hospital for Angel Medical Center in Franklin, North Carolina, as well as a new 120-bed inpatient behavioral health facility and a Mission Hospital for Advanced Medicine in Asheville.

Asheville is the second new market HCA has entered in the past 12 months, following Savannah, Georgia, where HCA bought Memorial Health in February of last year. The company is also in talks to expand its footprint in New Hampshire by purchasing Frisbee Memorial Hospital.