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Memphis councilman urges county, hospitals and UT to convene to explore cheaper tertiary-care alternatives to planned new hospital
Summary
Councilman Jeff Warren asked commissioners to pause planned capital spending and convene hospital systems, the University of Tennessee and local leaders to study whether an upgraded existing facility could serve as a tertiary care center tied to the medical school — potentially saving hundreds of millions in capital costs.
Councilman Jeff Warren (City of Memphis) used a Hospitals & Health committee discussion slot to ask the county and local health systems to convene a cross-sector review of options to provide a full tertiary-care hospital attached to the University of Tennessee medical school. Warren said Memphis lacks a single, full-service tertiary center and suggested exploring whether retrofitting an existing facility (for example, a Methodist campus building) could meet tertiary-care and medical-school clinical needs at a lower cost than building an entirely new, billion-dollar campus.
Warren emphasized the trade-offs county leaders face: schools and jail maintenance needs, rising costs and changing federal reimbursement patterns. He asked the mayor to convene hospitals, UT leaders, major donors and health-system CEOs to model whether a repurposed facility could deliver trauma, neonatal ICU, burn and other subspecialty services in a way that would better anchor the medical school and reduce overall capital needs.
Commissioners and panelists praised the idea of convening stakeholders for an impartial cost-and-capacity study; several cautioned that moving dollars already appropriated for a Regional 1 rebuild could be politically difficult and would require a careful, collaborative process. Councilman Warren asked the county to pause major capital commitments until the convening occurs and the group produces a comparative study. "If we can save $750 million or more and still secure tertiary care and medical-school integration, that's worth investigating," he said.
What happens next: Councilman Warren requested the Shelby County mayor convene the proposed cross-sector group; commissioners encouraged coordination and pledged to follow up about scheduling and scoping a study.
