Knoxville, Tenn.-based Tennova Healthcare announced plans to "reconfigure" services at three existing facilities, effectively abandoning its plan to construct a new $303.5 million replacement hospital, reports Knox News.
The reconfiguration at the three facilities — Knoxville-based Physicians Regional Medical Center, Tennova North Knoxville Medical Center in Powell (Tenn.) and Knoxville-based Tennova Turkey Creek Medical Knoxville — will begin immediately, with a two-year completion timeline.
"Given the changes in the healthcare industry, building a new hospital is unnecessary and would not be prudent for our health system and the Knoxville community," said Tony Benton, CEO of Physicians Regional Medical Center. "By making these adjustments, we will ultimately improve the operations of our Knoxville area hospitals."
Physicians Regional Medical Center will cease to be an acute-care hospital, instead transforming into a specialized-care campus. The delivery services currently offered at Turkey Creek Medical will relocate to Physicians Regional, which already has a neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital will offer services such as inpatient physical rehabilitation and inpatient psychiatric care.
North Knoxville Medical Center will expand its cancer care services, add cardiac catheterization labs and increase the number of operating rooms to accommodate more heart, orthopedic, general and vascular surgeries.
Turkey Creek will convert its obstetric department into a medical-surgical unit, add operating rooms and add ICU-beds to take on more complex general and cardiovascular surgeries.
In addition to the reconfiguration at the three existing facilities, Tennova is looking to construct outpatient centers such as freestanding emergency centers, ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices.
Mr. Benton told Knox News no layoffs are planned as part of the reconfigurations, although some positions will move to different locations.