Knoxville, Tenn.-based Tennova Healthcare cut certain services at its Morristown, Tenn.-based Lakeway Regional Hospital while expanding outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation care, Knox News reports.
Here's what you should know:
1. Lakeway discontinued intensive care and some inpatient surgeries. It will consolidate three physicians' offices into a single location devoted to primary care, occupational medicine and general surgery as a result.
2. Meanwhile, Tennova is building an ASC on a North Knoxville-based medical campus. The center will include six operating suites and is expected to open in early 2019.
3. Tennova Healthcare also scrapped plans for a new flagship hospital on property it bought in West Knoxville for $11.8 million.
4. Instead, the health system will develop Knoxville-area outpatient centers and "reconfigure" services at three hospitals: North Knoxville-based Physicians Regional Medical Center, Powell-based Tennova North Medical Center and West Knoxville-based Tennova Turkey Creek Medical Center.
"These decisions were made after carefully evaluating patient usage of Lakeway Regional Hospital over the past several years, recognizing that inpatient services are needed less as medical advances allow more care to be provided in outpatient settings," said Lakeway CEO and CFO Tammy White.