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Blue Ridge Health plans Family Medicine Residency Program on U.S. 64 West

A conceptual rendering shows the proposed design for Blue Ridge Health’s new medical facility in Hendersonville, which will provide additional space for patient care and support the clinical and educational needs of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program.

By Lightning Reports, Published: August 29, 2026

Blue Ridge Health plans to build a new medical facility in Hendersonville that will provide more space for patient care, strengthen the clinical and educational environment for family medicine residents, and provide room for future growth.

The facility will become the new home of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program, operated through a longstanding partnership of Blue Ridge Health, the Mountain Area Health Education Center and UNC Health Pardee.

Blue Ridge Health has acquired approximately two acres on Sixth Avenue at Whitted Street for the new facility. Its location near UNC Health Pardee and the Pardee Health Sciences Center will out resident physicians close to the hospital for inpatient rotations and on-call responsibilities while continuing their community-based outpatient training through Blue Ridge Health.

Blue Ridge Health CEO Tammy Greenwell unveiled the plans and a rendering of the proposed facility during a recent 30th anniversary celebration of the MAHEC Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program. Blue Ridge Health, MAHEC and UNC Health Pardee jointly hosted the event.

“The new Blue Ridge Health Family Medical Building will be an investment not only in a new facility, but in the future of patient care and family medicine physician training in Western North Carolina,” Greenwel saidl. “For decades, this partnership has demonstrated what is possible when community-based care, medical education, and hospital training work together. A new state-of-the-art medical facility will give our residents, providers, and care teams a space designed specifically for how they work and learn, while creating room to meet the evolving needs of the communities we serve.”

The planned three-story facility will address the current limitations of the residency program’s clinic space and better accommodate the didactic learning, faculty precepting, and clinical workflow needs of residency physicians and the many professionals who support them. The new medical facility is expected to provide additional exam rooms and a more functional workspace for clinical, meeting, teaching, and administrative spaces.

Plans call for the first floor to include the family medicine residency clinical space and a drive-through pharmacy for patient needs. The second floor will provide residency offices, didactic and conference space, and other administrative functions. The third floor is planned as a shell space for future expansion and growth.

The new medical facility will build upon a long-standing partnership that integrates community-based healthcare, graduate medical education, and hands-on clinical training within the hospital setting. Blue Ridge Health serves as the clinical sponsor and provides a community-based outpatient environment where resident physicians care for diverse patient populations. MAHEC provides the academic framework, curriculum, and residency accreditation, while UNC Health Pardee serves as the primary inpatient training hospital, providing residents with experience in areas including intensive care, surgery, labor and delivery, and other hospital-based care.

“Training family physicians in a community-based setting gives residents the opportunity to learn medicine while developing a deep understanding of the patients and communities they serve,” said Dr. Daniel Yoder, program director of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program. “A facility designed around both clinical care and medical education strengthens that experience, providing the space our physician residents and faculty need to learn, collaborate, and care for patients.”

Since the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program’s first graduating class in 1999, 98 physicians have completed the program. Today, 92 percent practice in medically underserved communities and 37 percent practice in Western North Carolina, demonstrating the program’s longstanding contribution to strengthening the physician workforce in communities with the greatest need.

“The strength of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency program has always been the partnership behind it,” said James M. Kirby, II, president and CEO, UNC Health Pardee.  “Physician residents gain experience across the full continuum of care, from caring for patients in a community-based setting to managing more complex hospital-based needs. This investment will strengthen that training environment and help prepare physicians who are equipped to serve the health care needs of Western North Carolina.”

The conceptual design for the new facility took shape during a three-day collaborative design charrette, where Blue Ridge Health and Family Medicine residency stakeholders worked alongside the architectural team to help envision a facility that would best meet the needs of patients, residents, and staff. Participants represented a broad cross-section of organizational and residency leadership, clinical and administrative teams, and family medicine residents.

The transitional-style design emphasizes a warm, welcoming environment rather than a traditional institutional setting. Features will include ecologically friendly materials, including exposed timber framing, native stone, stucco, and glass; abundant natural light; a covered entrance; accessible parking; extensive landscaping; and outdoor space.

Plans also include a terraced, three-level parking structure designed to minimize its visual impact. The new medical facility project is in the planning and development stage. Blue Ridge Health anticipates launching a capital campaign in 2027 to support construction of the facility, with the goal of beginning construction in early 2028.