Hospitals & Health Care
For Knoxville hospitals 2006 was a year of record in several ways.
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center delivered a record 3,043 babies last year, including 66 sets of twins, eight sets of triplets and a set of quadruplets. More than 15,000 babies have been delivered at the hospital since 2006.
The University of Tennessee Medical Center saw a record number of patients - about 55,000 - in its emergency department, including a record 3,712 in its level I trauma center.
Parkwest Medical Center's Peninsula Behavioral Health division also had a record number of admissions - 5,139 - while graduating the largest class in Peninsula Village's history.
Meanwhile, Robert "Bob" Koppel, longtime president and chief executive director of East Tennessee Children's Hospital, announced his retirement, though he'll remain president emeritus for three more years, assisting with fundraising and other projects. A new, as-yet-unnamed CEO will take the helm this summer.
And Baptist Health System, which owns downtown's Baptist Hospital of East Tennessee and Turkey Creek's Baptist Hospital West/Baptist Hospital for Women, is looking at other opportunities since a deal to partner with Texas-based for-profit system Triad Hospitals Inc. fell through.
Earlier this year, Baptist hired Chicago management firm Wellspring Partners LTD to oversee daily operations at its three Knoxville hospitals as well as Baptist Hospital of Cocke County. Last year, Baptist refused to consider a joint buy-out offer from other Knoxville hospital systems Covenant Health - which owns both Fort Sanders Regional and Parkwest - St. Mary's Health System, and University Health Systems, which owns University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Nevertheless, Baptist completed renovation and refurbishment of several areas in its older, downtown flagship hospital, including the medical surgical unit, the chapel, vending area, intensive care unit and surgical waiting areas.
UTMC also completed some renovation, opening its Heart/Stroke Center in August and its Tom and Katherine Black neonatal intensive care unit, a $4.8 million renovation that included adding 29 private rooms for the frailest babies, in January.
This fall, St. Mary's Health System is scheduled to open a new six-story, 72-bed acute-care medical center on its North campus, just off Emory Road in Powell. Already on the property are its Health and Fitness Center and Cancer, Women's and Imaging Center, along with an office building.
President and CEO Debra London also announced plans to, this year, begin renovating St. Mary's flagship campus on Oak Hill Ave. in North Knoxville, including constructing a $100 million multistory patient tower.
Parkwest had a certificate of need approved last year to expand surgical services and will begin a $14.9 million project that will, among other things, increase its surgery rooms from 14 to 18.
Sister hospital Fort Sanders Regional has begun construction on a 622-space patient parking garage, scheduled for completion this spring.
As always, the biggest growth for Knoxville hospitals has come in the form of technology. Fort Sanders Regional, for example, added a neurointerventional suite that includes a three-dimensional flat-paneled biplane X-ray system to pinpoint and treat aneurysms. The system can also be used to administer clot-busting drugs to the brain during stroke.
Children's Hospital took its radiology department digital, moving completely away from film images.
Baptist added the VenaCure laser ablation system for treating varicose veins, and the Relieva Balloon Sinuplasty system, which relieves acute and chronic sinusitis.
Both UTMC and St. Mary's added new state-of-the art equipment to deliver radiation treatment. St. Mary's also purchased the da Vinci surgical robot and is using it for urologic, prostate and gynecologic procedures. The robot was previously available in Knoxville only at Fort Sanders Regional.
UTMC ended 2006 on a high note, completing its first pancreas-only treatment. (The medical center completed its first combination kidney/ pancreas transplant in January 2006.) It's still the only facility in this region to perform kidney transplants, available since 1985.
