News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Fentress County is considering a partnership with the University of Tennessee Medical Center to bring emergency services back to the county.
County Executive Jimmy Johnson said the partnership will be a difference maker to the community.
“It would be a tremendous help to Fentress County and our surrounding rural areas,” Johnson said. “If we could just have something here in the county that could take care of our emergencies.”
Johnson said the partnership will create a stand-alone emergency room to treat local patients. He said currently, ambulances serve as the county’s emergency room.
Johnson said the Fentress County Commission will consider up to $25,000 in funding for the partnership at tonight’s meeting.
“They want to go ahead and start doing some things,” Johnson said. “We have some hurdles we have to get through to hope things will come about to where they can get over here and get into operation if we can at all. We’re going to push for it as hard as we can, and I believe that they are, also.”
The idea of the partnership developed earlier in the year, according to Johnson. He said the coronavirus pandemic set the partnership back, but it seems now as if it is ready to take off.
“We’ve been working on this since back in early-March or late-February, and COVID set it back, but we’re back on track,” Johnson said. “They were up here a couple weeks ago looking again, and they set down with us for another meeting.
Johnson said the initial agreement is for 12-months, but he said if it is a successful partnership, he hopes it will lead to a longer relationship.
“I hope that it will go to where we might be able to have something larger in times to come,” Johnson said. “A few years down the road, if it works out, we’ll have been partnered up with them to work on this to get something for at least 12-months, and hopefully things will work out. This is new territory for us. It’s new territory for them, also. But I think this is what it is going to come down to. I believe, from reading numerous publications, your large, rural hospitals are going to be a thing of the past. It will mostly come out to emergency-type facilities with transporting out to another central location.”
If the commission agrees to help fund the project, Johnson said, it will take another 6-to-8 months to get the operation up and running. He said there are still roadblocks at the federal and state level left to clear.
Johnson said he feels that the partnership can save lives. He said currently it takes over an hour sometimes to get patients to an emergency room.
“Anytime you can get someone to an emergency room quicker, the better off it is to everyone,” Johnson said.
