McMinnville’s Ascension Saint Thomas River Park Hospital named one of the nation’s 100 great community hospitals in the latest Becker’s Hospital Review.
President Eric Paul said the honor recognizes more than $15 million in renovations and additions over the last two years.
“That type of recognition is not readily given out to small community hospitals like River Park,” Paul said. “And so it’s always been important to Ascension Saint Thomas to be able to provide quality healthcare locally. And that’s our goal. We want to be able to put patients first in everything we do. And we want to be able to take care of patients here in our community where we live.”
Paul said the hospital recently expanded its emergency room from 12 beds to 21 beds to improve patient flow and confidentiality. Paul said the facility also opened a new 12-bed intensive care unit last September and renovated its third floor to accommodate seasonal patient surges.
Paul said the hospital is currently upgrading its MRI equipment and adding a second CT scanner. Paul said the organization is also focused on the continued recruitment of subspecialists to serve the region.
“I think it shows to the residents and to the community that they can receive quality healthcare right here in their own neighborhood, or their own backyard,” Paul said. “They don’t have to go to Nashville for quality healthcare.”
Paul said it is not uncommon for hospital staff to bring their own family to River Park for their local health care.
“It’s personal with them,” Paul said. “And so they want to make sure that if it’s good enough for their loved ones, their father, their mother, their brother, their spouse, that it’s going to be good enough for anybody in the community.”
As the leader of a community hospital, Paul said quality healthcare, like education, is one of the biggest factors in attracting a talented labor force.
“When you think about the lifeblood of an organization or a community or a county, you know, I think employers or somebody moving into the county, you know, they always ask about the quality of the schools and the quality of healthcare,” Paul said. “And those are two things that go hand-in-hand.”
Paul said the hospital serves an eight-county area including Warren County and McMinnville, and takes pride in doing so. Paul said the facility previously saw roughly 2,200 patients per year per bed in the emergency room before the recent 75 percent expansion.
“We’re constantly challenging ourselves to do a better job because we always believe that, again, great teams set the standard,” Paul said. “There’s no room for complacency. There’s always room for opportunity and it’s something that we owe the community.”
River Park was also recognized by Newsweek Magazine as one of the top-10 best in-state hospitals in Tennessee.
Paul said Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2026 ranking was influenced by the River Park receiving a five-star rating from Medicare and an A+ from Leapfrog.