This rising Nashville suburb might quickly get a brand new emergency room to serve sufferers wants

Relying on the time of day and site visitors, residents of the fast-growing Nashville suburb White Home presently drive between 20 to half-hour to get to the closest emergency room, however that might quickly change.

Tristar Hendersonville Medical Heart introduced Wednesday that it intends to construct a brand new, freestanding emergency room in White Home to “improve well being care entry and important emergency companies” in an space the place inhabitants elevated over 23% within the final 4 years. Since 2000, White Home’s inhabitants doubled from about 7,200 to 16,100 folks.

Earlier than the HCA Healthcare-operated hospital can formally begin the undertaking, the Tennessee Well being Services Fee should grant TriStar a certificates of want, affirming {that a} freestanding emergency room is important in White Home, which is about 20 miles north of Nashville.

The state’s certificate-of-need course of exists to manage the expansion of well being care suppliers in Tennessee.

Since 1973, certificate-of-need legal guidelines have been in place in Tennessee, however earlier this 12 months, Gov. Invoice Lee signed into regulation a invoice eradicating the requirement for hospitals to acquire certificates of want previous to implementing freestanding emergency rooms that meet sure {qualifications}. Nevertheless, the regulation is not going to go into impact till 2025.

“We’re proud to be the hospital of alternative for the residents of White Home and surrounding communities, and we look ahead to bringing our care nearer to dwelling,” TriStar Hendersonville CEO Justin Coury stated in a press release. “This new freestanding emergency room will be sure that residents can entry high-quality emergency care a lot sooner which may save lives.”

The proposed freestanding ER in White Home consists of 11 examination rooms, a trauma room, an imaging division and a nursing station. Ought to the hospital system get approval from the state to construct the ER, will probably be geared up to deal with emergencies like coronary heart assaults, strokes and damaged bones.

Nonetheless, sufferers who require surgical procedure or different extra severe medical consideration would should be relocated to a full-size hospital.

Hadley Hitson covers trending enterprise, eating and well being take care of The Tennessean. She might be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To help her work, subscribe to The Tennessean.

This text initially appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville suburb White House to soon get new, freestanding ER