About the Community Conversation with The IM – August 2025
On August 7, 2025, Dogwood Health Trust hosted a community conversation for the Independent Monitor to discuss its Annual Report for 2024, which was released to the public on July 29th. The conversation was conducted in an online, webinar format, and those in attendance had the opportunity to submit questions for Dogwood Health Trust and the Independent Monitor.
A recording of the webinar is available here: https://vimeo.com/1108179062?share=copy#t=0
We thank those who attended for their thoughtful questions, and we hope that as a result of this webinar, those who participated have a better understanding of the IM process and reporting.
About Community Meetings – May 2025
The Independent Monitor Team (the IM) returned to Western North Carolina for another series of meetings to share information and build community. From May 5 – 9, the Team met with citizens and groups, both in person and remotely, and toured HCA/Mission Hospital System facilities in collaboration with Dogwood Health Trust.
On May 12 and 13, the IM held two public meetings, one in Marion and one in Asheville. The meetings were presented in a revised format, which included two parts:
- • IM Team Presentation – reviewed the IM tasks, provided an overview of the APA obligations (completed versus outstanding) being monitored by the IM, reviewed the public-facing IM report and areas of potential non-compliance identified by the Team, and reviewed the state and federal resources available to the public for reporting concerns.
- • Resource Tables for Citizens – invited by the IM, representatives of critical state agencies and HCA/Mission Health System staffed resource tables, which were available to attendees following the IM’s presentation. The IM also hosted a table.
NOTE: The public meeting in Asheville was live-streamed and recorded. See below for access.
Thank you to the attendees who pre-registered for the Community Meetings and submitted questions, either during pre-registration or upon arrival at the meetings. The IM was able to answer some of those questions and provided all questions to the organizations attending.
We hope that the Resource Tables allowed you to meet and visit with representatives of the organizations who have authority to take action on behalf of the citizens of Western North Carolina.
About Continued Community Engagements
In addition, the Independent Monitor Team continues to offer to meet with small groups, civic organizations, and individuals, either in person or virtually. Please let us know if you would like to meet with the Independent Monitor, or if you know of a small group or civic organization that would like to meet with us by notifying the Team at: Mission@affliatedmonitors.com.
A Message of Appreciation
We continue to extend our thanks to individuals and groups which welcomed our Team members during our site visits in January and May 2025, providing space for our meetings and participating in meaningful discussions.
