The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency approved Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center's plan to build a 42-bed, $144 million hospital in Murfreesboro on a 5-1 vote Dec. 15, NPR affiliate Nashville Public Radio reported.
Kenneth Patric, MD, who is on the agency board, said the county doesn't require more beds currently, according to the report. However, Vanderbilt showed that many residents travel to Vanderbilt's Nashville location to receive care, passing up Murfreesboro-based Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and Smyrna-based TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center.
Both of these hospitals were against Vanderbilt's construction plan for Murfreesboro, according to the agenda report.
A revision of the state's certificate of need laws now takes into account whether consumers would benefit from more competition, rather than just focusing on the community's need, according to Nashville Public Radio.
"Particularly in the pediatric population and some of the other specialized areas like cardiac, there is indeed the need, and we should allow consumers to make that choice once this is established," Dr. Patric said.