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Bradley Medical Center outlines $200 million investment, plans 29‑bed inpatient rehab with Siskin
Summary
Bradley Medical Center told the Bradley County Commission it has invested more than $200 million since acquisition, is expanding clinical capacity and has a joint-venture plan with Siskin Hospital to open a roughly 29‑bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Bradley Medical Center's Westside campus pending state certificate of need approval.
Lisa Lovelace, chief executive officer of Bradley Medical Center, told the Bradley County Commission the hospital system has invested "over $200,000,000 in our community" since the recent acquisition and is pursuing a multi‑year facility plan that includes new beds, technology upgrades and a joint venture with Siskin Hospital to add inpatient rehabilitation services.
Loveless told commissioners the system will convert to the Epic electronic medical record in June, has added 10 beds on the fifth floor, installed 3‑D mammography and replaced more than $1,500,000 in stretchers and beds. She said the hospital purchased five acres of adjacent land "to prevent us from being landlocked" and showed draft renderings for a women's center and future medical office building.
"We are putting together a board that will be finalized over the next couple of months," Lovelace said, naming Allen Smith as acting board chair and Leslie Painter as director of the reintroduced Bradley Healthcare Foundation.
Matt Gibson, chief executive officer of Siskin Hospital, described Siskin as a nonprofit rehabilitation system with a long record of specialty care and said the proposed inpatient rehabilitation hospital would bring services closer to Bradley County residents. "We are going through, as we speak, the certificate of need process in the state of Tennessee," Gibson said, and added that construction could begin this fall if the state process is successful.
Gibson said the new facility would have roughly 29 beds and would be sited on the Bradley Medical Center Westside campus; higher‑complexity spinal cord patients would continue to be treated at Siskin's main campus, he said. The presentation noted Siskin has operated an outpatient clinic in Bradley County for roughly 20 years.
Commissioners asked about emergency department flow and bed capacity in the hospital. Lovelace said the hospital's admitted length of stay has been affected by limited bed counts and that added beds and extended physician and advanced‑practice coverage are part of the response. She described staffing and vacancy challenges inherited at the time of acquisition and said the system has hired more than 100 people and filled 59 new positions.
Lovelace and Gibson provided timelines and rendering concepts but said final designs and several details remain under development; the inpatient rehab project is contingent on certificate of need approval and other planning milestones. No formal county action or funding was requested or taken at the commission meeting.
The presentations and subsequent discussion lasted the bulk of the afternoon session and closed with commissioners thanking the presenters and expressing support for bringing the service closer to Bradley County residents.
