New leader selected for McDowell Hospital

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 13, 2015) – McDowell Hospital will welcome a new leader on March 23.  Carol C. Wolfenbarger, RN, BSN, MSN, FACHE, will join the hospital as President, stepping into the role following the departure of Lynn Boggs in December.

Wolfenbarger is board certified in Healthcare Management and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). For more than three decades she has served hospitals and health systems in east Tennessee, most recently as Chief Operating Officer/Chief Nursing Executive at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Jefferson City, Tenn. In that role her accomplishments included achieving Top 100 Hospitals designation three years in a row, and achieving Top Performer status from The Joint Commission for two consecutive years. She previously held leadership positions at Morristown Hamblen Healthcare System in Morristown, Tenn., and Cherokee Health Systems in Talbott, Tenn.  Wolfenbarger also served for several years as instructor/adjunct faculty for first- and second-year RN Associate Degree students at Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn.

She will report to Kathy Guyette, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Mission Health’s Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and President, Regional Member Hospitals. Until Wolfenbarger’s arrival, Bob Bednarek, Mission’s VP of Rural Health Planning and Development, will continue as interim President at McDowell Hospital.

“We are so pleased to welcome Carol Wolfenbarger to our community and to the Mission Health family,” said Guyette. “Her extensive experience in a small community hospital environment, just over the mountain from us in Tennessee, makes her a natural fit for McDowell Hospital, and we are confident of a bright future under her leadership.”

Wolfenbarger holds both Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in nursing from the University of Tennessee.

McDowell Hospital is a not-for-profit community hospital serving McDowell County. Located in Marion, North Carolina, the hospital is licensed for 65 beds and has more than 400 employees, including 120 RNs. Medical specialties offered by McDowell Hospital include: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, urology, and obstetrics and gynecology. Currently, five of its primary care practices have been recognized by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as Rural Health Clinics. McDowell Hospital is a member of Mission Health, a Top 15 Health System. For more information, please visit mcdowellhospital.org.

Mission Health, based in Asheville, North Carolina, is the state’s sixth-largest health system and the region’s only not-for-profit, independent community hospital system governed and managed exclusively in western North Carolina. Mission Health has been recognized as one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems 2012-2014 by Truven Health Analytics, formerly Thomson Reuters. Mission Health is the only medium-sized health system to receive this recognition three years in a row, and the only health system in North Carolina to achieve that distinction.

Mission Health, which traces its roots in the region back to 1885, operates six hospitals, numerous outpatient and surgery centers, post-acute care provider CarePartners, long-term acute care provider Asheville Specialty Hospital and the region’s only dedicated Level II trauma center. Its medical staff consists of more than 1,000 physicians and is certified in more than 50 medical specialties and sub-specialties. Mission Health has seven Centers of Excellence: Cancer, Heart, Mission Children’s Hospital, Neurosciences, Orthopedics, Trauma and Women’s Health. Mission Hospital, located in Asheville, is the system’s flagship hospital and is licensed for 795 beds. It is the regional referral center for tertiary and quaternary care. It also includes Mission Children’s Hospital – the region’s only children’s hospital. Other Mission Health member hospitals include Angel Medical Center in Franklin, Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine, Highlands-Cashiers Hospital in Highlands, McDowell Hospital in Marion and Transylvania Regional Hospital in Brevard. With approximately 10,600 employees and 2,000 volunteers, Mission Health is dedicated to improving the health and wellness of the people of western North Carolina. For more information, please visit mission-health.org or @MissionHealthNC.