ASHEVILLE, N.C. — There was the beeping of monitors, the stiff sheets, the sterile smell of the hospital room. Mostly, there was pain. Sharp, relentless pain.
Mike Messino was recovering from a successful surgery, but the nerve blocks had worn off. He spent two full hours waiting for a nurse to inject pain medication. When he’d worked in this hospital, he’d made sure patients didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes for that kind of care.
But things are different now that the country’s biggest hospital chain, HCA Healthcare, owns Mission Hospital in Asheville and five rural hospitals scattered across the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. It’s not the nurses themselves — there simply aren’t enough of them anymore.