The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:45 PM
$115M Expansion Of Fort Sanders Announced Monday Morning
The modernization will include new critical care and intermediate care beds and emergency department rooms.
A representative with Covenant Health said the expansion was part of a long-term master plan that has been accelerated due to an increase in patient demand and changes to Knoxville's health care market.
“The situation becomes very real to family members who must wait longer periods of time for their loved ones to be transferred from the emergency department or critical care to a patient room,” Covenant Health CEO Jim VanderSteeg said.
Officials also noted that the downtown demand in critical care units exceeds the current amount of beds most of the time. In addition to more beds, the expansion has also called for improved parking.
A Covenant representative explained that the emergency department will see a 67% increase in the number of rooms to 45. Under the expansion plan, the emergency department will be on the ground floor of the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) on Clinch Avenue, and the ICU and CCU will be located in the two additional floors that will be built atop the CAM building. The plan also figured in extending the parking garage between Laurel and Highland avenues for EMS parking and other spaces.
Pending approval from the Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Knoxville City Council, the expansion is expected to take place over the next one to two years.
