Cookeville Regional Medical Center is expanding services into other counties in the Upper Cumberland. Recently they opened a new clinic in Livingston, one in Fairfield Glade and has acquired a hospital in Celina.
Having had a presence in the Cumberland County area for several years through health fairs and community health seminars, CRMC has taken it a step further with the opening of the new primary and speciality care clinic on Peavine Road in Cumberland County.
The Fairfield Glade Clinic of Cookeville Regional is now open and staffed by family nurse practitioner Elaine Howard, FNP. It will be Elaine’s job to care for patients who have minor illnesses and injuries. Howard has over 40 years experience in health care.
In addition, specialty physicians from Cookeville Regional are routinely available in the clinic each week so that patients will have the convenience of seeing them in the Fairfield Glade area instead of traveling to Cookeville for every visit.
Specialists available in the clinic include: cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, a pulmonary medicine specialist, gastroenterologist, and a general/vascular surgeon along with other specialists in the future. The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
“As a regional referral medical center, it is important for our hospital to expand its services to other communities,” said Dr. Menachem Langer, CEO of Cookeville Regional. “We’ve also opened a specialty clinic in Livingston to provide cardiology services there. Community outreach is important to us and we are pleased to offer these services in other communities.”
Code 37 Protocol
Another way Cookeville Regional is expanding into other communities is through the development of the Code 37 protocol to help in the treatment of heart attacks. Through the dedicated efforts of cardiologists Stacy Brewington, M.D. and Brian Dockery, M.D. along with hospitals and area ambulance services including Cumberland Medical Center and Cumberland County EMS, Cookeville Regional and ambulance services in the region have partnered together to activate treatment of a heart attack sooner than ever before.
Once the ambulance staff determines through an EKG that the patient is having a heart attack, they are now able to activate the “heart team” of cardiologists and cardiac catheterization staff at Cookeville Regional from the field. That way, patients arrive at the hospital with the team waiting on them to immediately begin the procedure to stop the heart attack.
The gold standard for stopping a heart attack is 90 minutes according to the American College of Cardiology. The Heart and Vascular Center at Cookeville Regional is averaging 43 minutes from the time the patient arrives at the hospital to the time that their heart attack is stopped.
By working together with EMS personnel, we are reducing the amount of time it takes to stop a heart attack,” continued Dr. Langer. “We recently had a patient from this area whose heart attack was stopped within 70 minutes from the time EMS did his EKG in Cumberland County to the time that his heart attack was stopped in the cardiac cath lab. That’s including the time it took to travel to Cookeville and to do the procedure. That’s a phenomenal time. Of course, the best result is that the patient is doing very well and is already getting back to his normal activities.”
Cumberland River
Hospital Acquisition
Not only has Cookeville Regional expanded into Cumberland County, but the medical center has also purchased Cumberland River Hospital in Celina.
We are excited to have Cumberland River Hospital as a part of our system of health care services,” continued Dr. Langer. “This acquisition is a win-win for both hospitals. We are able to further expand our reach into the region while Cumberland River Hospital and its patients get the benefit of being a part of a larger organization with additional resources and services.
“Because of uncertainties in today’s health care environment, more and more independent hospitals are exploring options to join with others,” continued Dr. Langer. “With health care reform looming in our future, it is imperative that we take steps now to secure our position so that we may continue our mission to provide high quality health care now and into the future.”
New Psychiatric Facility
Also on the horizon for Cookeville Regional is the opening of a new psychiatric facility within the medical center.
Ten Broeck Tennessee is opening a ’32-bed hospital within a hospital’ in a wing of our hospital and will be providing mental health and addiction treatment services,” said Dr. Langer. “Our region has been underserved for many years in the field of mental health so the opening of this facility is very important to us.”
We continue to look for ways to expand our services,” said Dr. Langer. “We will finish expansions in our Emergency Department and Surgery later this year. We’ve also added 14 new physicians to our medical staff this year with more to come.”
Award-Winning
Medical Center
A 247-bed regional referral center that is home to over 200 physicians representing 40 medical and surgical specialties, Cookeville Regional Medical Center is an award-winning facility recognized nationally for quality care. As a matter of fact, the medical center has been named the top rated hospital in Tennessee for cardiac care, vascular surgery and orthopedic services by HealthGrades in 2012. Additionally, the hospital is one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals in these specialty areas as well as spine surgery, and just last month, Cookeville Regional was ranked #2 in the state for patient safety by Consumer Reports.
Our top priority here is quality care,” said Dr. Langer. “We are pleased to have such outstanding quality ratings but we don’t rest on our laurels. We work every day to be sure our care is top notch.”