Cookeville Regional Medical Center will suspend services at the CRMC endocrinology office and Diabetes Center.
COO Buffy Key said the hospital has struggled to recruit endocrinologists. She said the hospital lost its long-time provider some time ago and has been operating with a locum practitioner and nurse practitioner.
“We’ve been very blessed here at Cookeville Regional to recruit the physicians that we have but endocrinology is one of those specialized services that is very, very hard to recruit for,” Key said. “Of course, Nashville has a lot of endocrinologists, Knoxville, places like that. But we have just had a really, really hard time with that service line.”
Key said that diabetes affects a significant portion of our population, and the hospital wants to continue doing what it can to provide those services and education. She said this will affect outpatient services and operations only. Key said they will still have all inpatient services available for diabetes patients through transitional nurses and things of that nature.
Key said the change will go into effect on January 1, 2023. She said all current patients should receive information in the mail shortly about the next steps.
“We’re working on (resuming these services) diligently we’ve just gotten to a point where we didn’t have anyone in place when these providers would be leaving us,” Key said. “So we just had to say, ‘Okay, let’s suspend the service, we’re going to sue those staff in other clinics and operations within the facility.’ We definitely hope to open this back up, and that’s what we’re working on very hard with our recruiting team right now.”
Key said they don’t have a specific time when they hope to resume services at CRMC Endocrinology located at 406 North Whitney, Suite 3, and the Diabetes Center, located at 127 North Oak, but hope it will be as soon as possible.
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