Five years later, residents still mourn the loss of Angel Medical Center’s maternity unit

Before the sun rises on a Tuesday morning in December, Amelia Cline smooches her partner goodbye and heads out the back door of her house in West Asheville. With a thermos of coffee in one hand and a handful of medical supplies in the other, she climbs into the driver’s side of a white Toyota and settles in for her hour-ish drive to Macon County. 

Angel Medical Center project moves forward

Plans to construct a new Angel Medical Center in Franklin moved forward last week after the town planning board approved a special-use permit for the replacement hospital. 

Mission looking for new location for MAMA

After rumblings and rumors around town, Mission Health confirmed it is actively looking for a new location for MAMA II, the medical emergency helicopter currently stationed at Angel Medical Center in Franklin. 

Public not invited to Franklin hospital hearing

Angel Medical Center held a public hearing Tuesday morning regarding a new potential location for the hospital on U.S. 441, but not a single person from the public signed up to speak.

New Franklin hospital could move out to U.S. 441

Angel Medical Center has been located in downtown Franklin for 60 years, but hospital officials are looking into the possibility of building a new facility out on U.S. 441.

Franklin asks for face time with Mission

It’s been more than two weeks since Mission Health announced Angel Medical Center would stop delivering babies as of July 14, but the Franklin community still has many unanswered questions and concerns. 

Community fights to keep babies born in Franklin

When Macon County residents joined together in 1971 to raise money to buy Angel Hospital and make it a community hospital, the effort was dubbed Operation Heartbeat.

‘Born in Franklin’ may never be heard again

At some point in the future, here’s something you might never hear again: “I was born in Franklin.”

Look no further than this Macon County town if you want stare right in the face of the agonizing state of the health care crisis in this country. Due strictly to bottom-line concerns, officials who run Angel Medical Center say come July the hospital will no longer deliver babies. Too expensive, too much of a losing proposition.

Baby deliveries to cease at Angel Medical

A difficult decision for Mission Health will now present a difficult decision for expecting mothers in Macon County. 

With Mission’s announcement that labor and deliveries at Angel Medical Center in Franklin will cease by July 14, pregnant women will have to decide whether they want to deliver at Harris Regional Hospital — a Duke LifePoint hospital — 25 minutes away in Sylva or travel an hour and a half to deliver at Mission Hospital in Asheville.

Mission to invest $45 million for new hospital in Franklin

Along with the announcement to stop labor and delivery services at Angel Medical Center, Mission Health also announced plans to build a new, state-of-the-art $43 million hospital for the Franklin community.

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