Clay County leaders exploring the development of a freestanding emergency room to restore local medical services following the closure of the county hospital.
Clay County Mayor Dale Reagan said the initiative began with a recent tour of a similar facility in Fentress County. Reagan said leaders wanted to study how that community addressed its own hospital loss.
“There’s always a need, there’ll always be a need,” Reagan said. “And I mean, we have our EMS services, our ambulance service is our emergency room.”
Reagan said Clay County is currently in the early stages of holding meetings with various stakeholders to determine what model fits the community.
“I can envision, you know, just a setting, I don’t know that it’s to the extent of that the magnitude they have there but I mean, you know, it would be something that would be very would certainly be very beneficial and helpful to us here,” Reagan said.
Instead of a full-24-hour emergency room, Reagan said they could potentially start by opening a facility with extended hours. Reagan said the local ambulance staff works diligently with up-to-date equipment, but a permanent physical location would provide a necessary secondary layer of care.
“It would be overwhelming,” Reagan said. “Instead of having to run maybe to Livingston or to Cookeville or to Burkesville or to Macon County or even to Tompkinsville, Ky., and if we had something like that right here to where you’d get in your own personal vehicle, maybe be there in a short period of time.”
Reagan said the facility would serve as a major asset for the local tourism industry and visitors at Dale Hollow Lake. Reagan said the timeline for the project is difficult to determine because the process requires securing sponsors, partners and navigating federal funding mechanisms through CMS.
Reagan said the county will continue to pursue the project through additional meetings with potential partners.
“I learned it never give up,” Reagan said. “Because there’s always hope out there and so that hopefully, we can take that and bring that information back with us and we’ve already been making some conversations with some different folks and everything about what could possibly work for us here in Clay County.”
Reagan said the visit was coordinated through Fentress County Executive Jimmy Johnson and Chamber of Commerce official Dr. Doug Young to gather information on potential partnerships and facility operations. Reagan said the delegation that traveled to Jamestown included State Rep. Kelly Keisling and other local officials interested in the University of Tennessee Medical Center partnership model.