About CarePartners: Our History
The name “CarePartners” has been used to describe our organization since 1996, but our roots go back 70 years, with the establishment of the Asheville Orthopedic Home in the 1930s.
The CarePartners story begins in 1938.
Asheville has long been known as a hub for healthcare services in Western North Carolina. In the 1920s, physicians around the country recommended Asheville and its beautiful mountains as a place for healing.
In 1926, the Asheville Rotary Club and the Asheville Junior League began treating children with disabilities at clinics that roved from location to location. When that became prohibitive, children were seen at a single site, the porch of All Souls Episcopal Church, while the groups searched for a permanent location.
In 1938, clinic organizers purchased the 40-plus acre Clyde Reed estate – a quiet, secluded setting on a hilltop close to Biltmore Village. With the new location came a new name: Asheville Orthopedic Home, Inc. The facility opened on August 25, 1939, with 12 young patients and 20 beds inside Mr. Reed’s beautiful stone mansion, shown at right.
Today, the stone mansion is the Administration Building for CarePartners, located at the heart of our campus, now 47 acres in size.
A home for children evolves into a regionally recognized rehabilitation hospital.
The 1940s brought the polio epidemic. The Asheville Orthopedic Home’s staff and board of directors responded to the crisis, expanding both in physical space and in scope of services, changing the name in 1948 to the Asheville Orthopedic Hospital.
By 1960, the polio epidemic had subsided with the creation of the polio vaccine. That year a prominent businessman, Harold Thoms, was elected to the board of trustees. Over the next 16 years, Mr. Thoms led the hospital through another period of tremendous change, including a new focus on adult rehabilitation. In his honor, the facility was renamed Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital in 1976. Twenty years later, having become an 80-bed regional referral center for adult rehabilitation, the hospital became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today the facility is known as CarePartners Rehabilitation Hospital, and its staff and board members continue to respond to the needs of the region. A major renovation and expansion is currently underway, with expected completion in late 2008.
Outpatient rehabilitation expands from one clinic to five.
The growth of Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital included the addition of outpatient services. In 1986 the Thoms Outpatient Center opened on the south side of the hospital campus. At various times over the years, the center’s programs included the Partin Speech & Hearing Center, the Olson Huff Center for Child Development (now part of Mission Hospitals), the Center for Older Adults (now the Memory Assessment Clinic, located at Givens Estates), and the predecessor of the Outpatient Center’s current menu of services, the Center for Outpatient Adult Rehabilitation.
Today, the CarePartners Outpatient Center is one of five locations for outpatient rehabilitation. In recent years, clinics have been added to the north, south, east and west of Asheville, along with two orthotics and prosthetics clinics in Asheville and Hendersonville.
Home health services start with a card table and two lawn chairs.
About the same time that the rehabilitation hospital was evolving, the seeds of CarePartners Home Health were just being planted as a group of friends discussed the need for a home health agency in the area.
In 1977, their vision became a reality when Visiting Health Professionals opened its doors in a space loaned by United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County.
Starting with only a card table and two lawn chairs, VHP moved into a series of larger offices as the number of patients increased. Additional nurses and therapists joined the staff to meet the demand. In 1992, VHP moved from Westgate Shopping Center to a much larger space on Merrimon Avenue, at what is now Greenlife Grocery. About this time VHP also opened offices in Henderson and Haywood counties. Four years later, VHP became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Home Health is located on the CarePartners campus, with the two satellite offices still located in bordering counties. CarePartners Home Health staff log more than a million miles a year to serve homebound patients in Western North Carolina.
Personal care services branches out on its own.
Just a year after the establishment of VHP, the company started a homemaker program with $30,000 in seed money from the state. It was December 1978 and the program was the second largest of its kind in North Carolina. Later, it branched out on its own under the name of At Home Services.
Today, CarePartners Private Duty & Personal Care Services continues to offer assistance that makes living at home possible for hundreds of Western North Carolina residents.
From a classroom to one of the biggest inpatient hospice facilities in NC.
1977 was also the year that interest in the hospice movement began to take hold in Buncombe County. A
class on death and dying at AB Tech Community College spurred interest in establishing a local program and three years later, Mountain Area Hospice cared for its first patient.
Though the majority of hospice patients receive care where they live, a need was identified for an inpatient facility for those who could not remain at home. The first Solace center on Livingston Street had six beds. Within two years, that number doubled. In 1996, having outgrown its space, Mountain Area Hospice moved to a larger facility in the Montford neighborhood. That same year, the agency became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Hospice & Palliative Care is located on the CarePartners campus, having built a new 27-bed facility with private rooms, a chapel, a great room and family dining area, and gardens that can be viewed from every patient room. The John F. Keever, Jr. Solace Center opened in 2005.
A program in a church basement becomes the area’s premier adult day center.
It was 1986 when the Alzheimer's Association and Mission Hospital collaborated to create a place where older adults could be cared for during the day. Mountain Geri-Care Center opened in Doctor's Park with a
capacity of 24 participants, later moving to the basement of Haywood Street United Methodist Church. In 1996, the agency moved to an expanded space on the Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital campus. With the expansion came a new name, MountainCARE (Center for Adult Respite and Enrichment), created to reflect the center’s service to impaired adults of all ages – not just geriatric. That same year, MountainCARE became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Adult Day Services provides a secure, spacious and stimulating environment for a total of 118 participants– up to 70 at any one time. It is the only adult day center in Buncombe County certified for both adult day care and adult day health.
Highly respected agencies join together to form CarePartners.
The decision to merge the independent healthcare providers to create CarePartners made sense on a lot of levels. All of the agencies were nonprofits and often cared for the same patients. For example, a stroke
patient might come to Thoms for rehabilitation, then after discharge become a patient of VHP for home health care, and later, go to MountainCARE for adult day services.
Combining resources to create one organization would enable patients to move more easily and efficiently from one level of care to the next. The larger entity would be stronger and better able to serve the needs of the people of Western North Carolina and beyond. And thanks to the foresight of the founders of the Asheville Orthopedic Home, there was plenty of space on the campus, so geographically, the majority of services could be located together in one place.
On October 1, 1996, the founding agencies formally came together under a new name, CarePartners. Today, CarePartners carries on the rich traditions of its founding organizations, dating all the way back to 1938. Now, as then, the goal is to provide the best care and services for those with disability, illness, and injury.
CarePartners Health Services:
Helping people live fully through life’s journey.
The CarePartners story begins in 1938.
Asheville has long been known as a hub for healthcare services in Western North Carolina. In the 1920s, physicians around the country recommended Asheville and its beautiful mountains as a place for healing.
In 1926, the Asheville Rotary Club and the Asheville Junior League began treating children with disabilities at clinics that roved from location to location. When that became prohibitive, children were seen at a single site, the porch of All Souls Episcopal Church, while the groups searched for a permanent location.
In 1938, clinic organizers purchased the 40-plus acre Clyde Reed estate – a quiet, secluded setting on a hilltop close to Biltmore Village. With the new location came a new name: Asheville Orthopedic Home, Inc. The facility opened on August 25, 1939, with 12 young patients and 20 beds inside Mr. Reed’s beautiful stone mansion, shown at right.
Today, the stone mansion is the Administration Building for CarePartners, located at the heart of our campus, now 47 acres in size.
A home for children evolves into a regionally recognized rehabilitation hospital.
The 1940s brought the polio epidemic. The Asheville Orthopedic Home’s staff and board of directors responded to the crisis, expanding both in physical space and in scope of services, changing the name in 1948 to the Asheville Orthopedic Hospital.
By 1960, the polio epidemic had subsided with the creation of the polio vaccine. That year a prominent businessman, Harold Thoms, was elected to the board of trustees. Over the next 16 years, Mr. Thoms led the hospital through another period of tremendous change, including a new focus on adult rehabilitation. In his honor, the facility was renamed Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital in 1976. Twenty years later, having become an 80-bed regional referral center for adult rehabilitation, the hospital became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today the facility is known as CarePartners Rehabilitation Hospital, and its staff and board members continue to respond to the needs of the region. A major renovation and expansion is currently underway, with expected completion in late 2008.
Outpatient rehabilitation expands from one clinic to five.
The growth of Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital included the addition of outpatient services. In 1986 the Thoms Outpatient Center opened on the south side of the hospital campus. At various times over the years, the center’s programs included the Partin Speech & Hearing Center, the Olson Huff Center for Child Development (now part of Mission Hospitals), the Center for Older Adults (now the Memory Assessment Clinic, located at Givens Estates), and the predecessor of the Outpatient Center’s current menu of services, the Center for Outpatient Adult Rehabilitation.
Today, the CarePartners Outpatient Center is one of five locations for outpatient rehabilitation. In recent years, clinics have been added to the north, south, east and west of Asheville, along with two orthotics and prosthetics clinics in Asheville and Hendersonville.
Home health services start with a card table and two lawn chairs.
About the same time that the rehabilitation hospital was evolving, the seeds of CarePartners Home Health were just being planted as a group of friends discussed the need for a home health agency in the area.
In 1977, their vision became a reality when Visiting Health Professionals opened its doors in a space loaned by United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County.
Starting with only a card table and two lawn chairs, VHP moved into a series of larger offices as the number of patients increased. Additional nurses and therapists joined the staff to meet the demand. In 1992, VHP moved from Westgate Shopping Center to a much larger space on Merrimon Avenue, at what is now Greenlife Grocery. About this time VHP also opened offices in Henderson and Haywood counties. Four years later, VHP became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Home Health is located on the CarePartners campus, with the two satellite offices still located in bordering counties. CarePartners Home Health staff log more than a million miles a year to serve homebound patients in Western North Carolina.
Personal care services branches out on its own.
Just a year after the establishment of VHP, the company started a homemaker program with $30,000 in seed money from the state. It was December 1978 and the program was the second largest of its kind in North Carolina. Later, it branched out on its own under the name of At Home Services.
Today, CarePartners Private Duty & Personal Care Services continues to offer assistance that makes living at home possible for hundreds of Western North Carolina residents.
From a classroom to one of the biggest inpatient hospice facilities in NC.
1977 was also the year that interest in the hospice movement began to take hold in Buncombe County. A
class on death and dying at AB Tech Community College spurred interest in establishing a local program and three years later, Mountain Area Hospice cared for its first patient.
Though the majority of hospice patients receive care where they live, a need was identified for an inpatient facility for those who could not remain at home. The first Solace center on Livingston Street had six beds. Within two years, that number doubled. In 1996, having outgrown its space, Mountain Area Hospice moved to a larger facility in the Montford neighborhood. That same year, the agency became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Hospice & Palliative Care is located on the CarePartners campus, having built a new 27-bed facility with private rooms, a chapel, a great room and family dining area, and gardens that can be viewed from every patient room. The John F. Keever, Jr. Solace Center opened in 2005.
A program in a church basement becomes the area’s premier adult day center.
It was 1986 when the Alzheimer's Association and Mission Hospital collaborated to create a place where older adults could be cared for during the day. Mountain Geri-Care Center opened in Doctor's Park with a
capacity of 24 participants, later moving to the basement of Haywood Street United Methodist Church. In 1996, the agency moved to an expanded space on the Thoms Rehabilitation Hospital campus. With the expansion came a new name, MountainCARE (Center for Adult Respite and Enrichment), created to reflect the center’s service to impaired adults of all ages – not just geriatric. That same year, MountainCARE became a founding member of CarePartners Health Services.
Today, CarePartners Adult Day Services provides a secure, spacious and stimulating environment for a total of 118 participants– up to 70 at any one time. It is the only adult day center in Buncombe County certified for both adult day care and adult day health.
Highly respected agencies join together to form CarePartners.
The decision to merge the independent healthcare providers to create CarePartners made sense on a lot of levels. All of the agencies were nonprofits and often cared for the same patients. For example, a stroke
patient might come to Thoms for rehabilitation, then after discharge become a patient of VHP for home health care, and later, go to MountainCARE for adult day services.
Combining resources to create one organization would enable patients to move more easily and efficiently from one level of care to the next. The larger entity would be stronger and better able to serve the needs of the people of Western North Carolina and beyond. And thanks to the foresight of the founders of the Asheville Orthopedic Home, there was plenty of space on the campus, so geographically, the majority of services could be located together in one place.
On October 1, 1996, the founding agencies formally came together under a new name, CarePartners. Today, CarePartners carries on the rich traditions of its founding organizations, dating all the way back to 1938. Now, as then, the goal is to provide the best care and services for those with disability, illness, and injury.
CarePartners Health Services:
Helping people live fully through life’s journey.