Potential Cumberland River Hospital Partner Working Well In Jellico

The healthcare management company Boa Vida showing interest in aiding the town of Celina with reopening its Cumberland River Hospital.

The town of Jellico, Tennessee recently worked with the company on its own hospital. Jellico Mayor Dwight Osborn said the partnership began after the city became dissatisfied with its previous hospital manager.

Osborn said after an exhaustive search trying to find a replacement, he has been pleased with the investment of Boa Vida into the community.

“From everything from where the finances originate for the hospital how it makes its money, and how that’s spent on the hospital operations and so forth,” Osborn said. “The business model that Boa Vida operates on is really important because it is something that is sustainable.”

Osborn said the work was not without significant effort. He said after hiring Boa Vida to serve as the provider, a 2012 report was discovered detailing some $5 million in needed critical repairs.

Osborn said the hospital needed boilers replaced, new lab equipment, and new x-rays. He said the hospital has been closed for about two years now, and the process is moving in a way they hope to reopen its doors by the end of the year.

“Just the fact that they came and made an investment here that we hadn’t seen from others in the past five or six years,” Osborn said. “Two different companies operated the hospital. It’s a big change. It’s 100 percent different from where we were at.”

Osborn said it took the right company with the right business model to maintain a hospital in a rural area like Jellico and like the Upper Cumberland.

Celina Mayor Luke Collins said Boa Vida indicated that they would invest over $3 million into the building to bring the hospital back to standard. However, Collins said the property remains privately owned, so it still needs to be purchased by a company

Boa Vida’s interest in reopening the facility dates back to June. Collins said at that time, the company signed a letter of intent to operate the hospital if the city borrowed $5.2 million and purchased the property. Collins said the city attorney advised against the deal, so it never came to the Board.