Cookeville City Council has given the go-ahead for Cookeville Regional to proceed with a joint partnership for a new Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital.
Cookeville Regional will share ownership with Encompass Health 50-50 on the new facility. The medical center will pursue an estimated $25 million bond to cover nearly half of the construction cost. The facility will expand CRMC’s rehabilitation capacity from 20 beds to 50 beds. Cookeville Mayor Laurin Wheaton said the new facility has been a big community need.
“This is overall gonna be wonderful for our community, for healthcare, and for keeping our patients here locally,” Wheaton said. “We are not having to send them. They get to be here with their families, so I think this is a great venture that we are doing.”
CRMC CEO Buffy Key said the hospital will keep up with metrics to ensure the facility is a success once opened. Key also said going from 30 percent ownership to 50 percent ownership gives CRMC more control over how the facility performs.
“We have moved to a 50 percent to give us more weight and making sure that we are driving this facility the way our community needs it to be driven,” Key said.
Council Member Chad Gilbert said CRMC will still own the property as part of the agreement. The total cost of the facility is an estimated $60 million.
“We all know how important it is, and to the point we were very specific that those terms favored us,” Gilbert said.