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World-class Health Options Set Nashville, TN Apart

Nashville-area residents and visitors benefit from some of the nation's best hospitals, surgery centers and clinics – anchored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the HCA TriStar network, and Saint Thomas Health – and a range of cutting-edge research, technologies and services that these institutions are pioneering in our region.

By Sam Scott on March 27, 2015

Nashville, TN
Nashville / Jeff Adkins
The TriStar Centennial Medical Center is located near downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

As the Nashville area has grown into a destination for both new residents and visitors, it has also grown to embody the very best in health-care services. From natives to newcomers, the people who call Music City home benefit from access to some of the nation’s best hospitals, surgery centers and clinics – anchored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, HCA TriStar and Saint Thomas Health – along with the cutting-edge research, technologies and services that these institutions are pioneering in the region. Those three major care providers continue to expand their facilities and services, while consistently earning top marks for patient satisfaction, safety, quality of care and other key measures.

Cutting-Edge Pediatric, Speciality Care

Nationally renowned Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) recently debuted a new stroke treatment suite with state-of-the-art technologies and has launched a $84 million, four-floor inpatient expansion of its Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital that will increase capacity to more than 300 beds. The expansion is on schedule, with work anticipated to start in 2015 and be completed by 2017, says John Howser, assistant vice chancellor for the medical center’s news and communications office. The project will add 160,000 square feet to the hospital’s existing structure at an estimated construction cost of $100 million.

“The first floor to be occupied in the new space will be an inpatient critical-care unit for premature babies and children who need other highly specialized services that only Children’s Hospital can provide, such as organ transplantation and neurosurgery,” Howser says.

Among other distinctions, VUMC is implementing the latest advances in minimally invasive surgical procedures, diagnostic imaging and medical devices. Just as significant, the medical center leads the way in biomedical research, advancing treatments for conditions ranging from liver disease to cancer. Like its cohorts in the region,VUMC also appreciates the value of collaboration, sharing expertise and resources with other health-care providers in Middle Tennessee through strategic partnerships.

Leading Neuroscience Network

HCA TriStar Health has a rich history in Nashville as part of the first hospital corporation ever formed in 1968. Today, TriStar is the region’s largest, most comprehensive health-care provider with 15 facilities and 11 emergency rooms, and more than 2,000 licensed beds throughout Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. Some 2,000 physicians and 7,600 employees use leading-edge technology and groundbreaking medical procedures to treat more than 400,000 patients and 356,000 ER visitors annually.

TriStar operates the area’s largest neuroscience network – with 10 primary stroke centers and Tennessee’s first comprehensive stroke center – and the largest tele-stroke and tele-neurology network with locations across Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. The network also includes 12 accredited chest-pain centers and three cardiac surgery centers.

Recent additions at TriStar include a Kids Express clinic that provides outpatient pediatric services at the Children’s Hospital at Centennial, an upgraded neuro-intensive care unit and trauma center at its Skyline location, a new ER in Portland, an inpatient rehab center with surgical beds at its Summit facility and a new medical plaza offering outpatient imaging services in Mt. Juliet.

A Ministry of Healing

Rooted in its faith-based and charitable mission, Saint Thomas Health is a family of hospitals united by a commitment “to provide spiritually centered, holistic care that sustains and improves the health” of the community. With a team of 1,829 employees and 1,072 affiliated physicians, the network includes Saint Thomas West, Saint Thomas Midtown and Saint Thomas Hospital for Spinal Surgery in Nashville, along with Saint Thomas Rutherford in Murfreesboro and Saint Thomas Hickman in Centerville.

Its hub is Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital, Middle Tennessee’s largest not-for-profit community hospital with 683 licensed acute- and rehab-care beds on a 38-acre campus. Saint Thomas Health averages 30,397 admissions per year, with 47,146 ER visits and 195,183 outpatient visits. Like Vanderbilt and TriStar, Saint Thomas is growing, investing $25 million to build a center dedicated to total joint-replacement procedures. Among other forward-thinking endeavors, Saint Thomas recently opened a center for advanced medical education to provide virtual training opportunities for medical professionals, and is taking part in an innovative clinical trial for patients requiring aortic valve replacement.

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