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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2025

UNC Health Blue Ridge celebrated with ASHE
award for excellence in facilities management

CHICAGO — The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE), a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association, is pleased to announce UNC Health Blue Ridge is the winner of the 2025 Excellence in Health Care Facility Management (FM Excellence) Award.

Each year, the FM Excellence Award recognizes individuals or facilities teams that implement new or innovative programs or processes to optimize the health care physical environment and improve patient care. Officials from UNC Health Blue Ridge will be presented with the award in Columbus, Ohio, at the Health Care Facilities Innovation Conference, taking place July 27-30.

For 120 years, UNC Health Blue Ridge has served as the nexus of health care in rural western North Carolina. The hospital’s new six-story pavilion on its central campus in Morganton, N.C., was planned to meet the needs of the growing patient population and modernize its infrastructure. Completed in August 2024, the new facility expands the original hospital from 338,060 square feet to 557,181 square feet, encompassing 30 updated intensive care unit and emergency department (ED) rooms and dedicated behavioral health spaces. The expansion also enabled UNC Health Blue Ridge to centralize inpatient care across the system and increase capacity to 214 inpatient beds, as well as help the hospital secure Level III trauma center designation.

The project team enacted an adaptive and highly collaborative design process, inviting perspectives from a range of clinical and operational teams, using value engineering and incorporating low-maintenance materials sourced locally. These strategies reinforced values of teamwork, resilience and innovation, helping the team deliver on its goals in the face of extraordinary obstacles including disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain issues and significant internal leadership changes.

The internal redesign deployed an evidence-based approach that has already improved clinician workflow and delivered improvements to patient care. To date, patient wait times have decreased by 33% and ED visit stay durations are down by 9 minutes on average, while centralizing inpatient care has allowed the system to increase visit volume by 3%.

The facility also incorporates modern technologies such as a digital communication system with electronic signage, as well as adaptations to facilitate reduced operational expenses, promote resiliency and meet energy reduction goals. These include high-efficiency HVAC systems, occupancy-based lighting and water-saving infrastructure, as well as stormwater management and streamlined mechanical systems to further reduce long-term maintenance expenses.

“It is a high honor to receive the FM Excellence Award,” says Taylor Benay, Director of Regulatory at Hexmodal and a member of ASHE’s Awards and Recognition Task Force. “The task force carefully reviews all entries, and UNC Health Blue Ridge stood out. The facilities management team engaged the local community for ongoing feedback. They provided incentives for current staff, patients, city officials and potential patients to have a voice throughout the project. They took this feedback, considered the options and made adjustments even as the project progressed."

For more information about the FM Excellence Award and this year’s winner, visit ashe.org/awards.