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Tennova Turkey Creek’s Farragut area service marked
Tony Benton, Tennova Healthcare East Market CEO, welcomed guests, including hospital employees, local and state officials and Tennova Board members to a “birthday party” in the hospital lobby.
“On a hot sunny day in July 2003, the doors of this hospital opened for the first time as Baptist Hospital West & Hospital for Women in a Town called Farragut ...,” Benton said.
Statistically, “In 2022 alone, the hospital registered 20,100 emergency room visits, 6,600 in-patient admissions, 11,800 patients provided “with state-of-the art surgical services” and 185,000 outpatient services visits covering radiation therapy, diagnostic imaging and lab and “physician visits,” he said.
Additionally, “... We provided almost $80 million in charity and uncompensated care,” Benton added. “All this excellent care is provided by about 745 hospital employees and 586 physician providers.”
Among the faciliy’s awards and recognitions is “:the Leapfrog grade of ‘A’ for six reporting periods,” the Tennova East Market CEO said.
Benton said the hospital changed names in 2007 “with the merger between St. Mary’s Health Systems and Baptist Health Systems,” leading to it being named Mercy West Medical Center.
It became Tennova Turkey Creek Medical Center in 2010 when HMA purchased the East Tennessee Mercy hospitals. Then in 2012, TTCMC became a part of Community Health System, “which remains our parent company today,” he said.
Other milestones in the years since include:
• In 2013, the hospital received accreditation for its Tennova Bariatric Program;
• In 2016, an Orthopedic Service Line was added on the fourth floor “and we have recently built upon this strong program by adding Tennova Orthopedic Physicians,” Benton said.
• In 2019, renovation began on the top floor of Plaza II for Tennova Medical Group MultiSpecialty Suite.
“And in the midst of these challenges (namely COVID-19), TCMC earned a Level III Trauma Center Designation, expanding our services provided by the Emergency Department,” Benton said, adding TTCMC was “the first site in East Tennessee to successfully perform the Watchman procedure in 2021, with over 325 procedures completed to date.
“And we’re still growing, changing, improving as evidenced by the recently established Jersey College School of Nursing, which opened this spring on the second floor of Plaza I.”
“They’ll be using overhead distribution lines where they’re available; and then, where they’re not, the will be going underground with directional boring, and that’s going to be most of our newer subdivisions,” Shipley said.
“They will be dividing the Town into what’s called ‘design areas,’ and they’re going to start with the fiber installation, working their way outward from their different substations,” he added.
As for a timetable, “Their goal is try to install the fiber, roughly, in a year from the time they start,” Shipley said. “It’s pretty ambitious, but I certainly hope they can do that.”
However, access to the fiber will not be immediate.
“They’ll probably be about a three- to four-month time lag for each area once they have fiber installed to get access to that service,” Shipley said. “There’s time after that’s installed where you can actually retain the service.
“They’ll be working with the Town staff, mainly the engineering department, for right-of-way permits and to make sure … sights are restored to pre-construction condition, traffic control …” he added.
