Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center

Description

About Fort Sanders Regional
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center located in downtown Knoxville traces its beginnings to May 29 1919 when a charter was received for a new hospital to be built on the site of the Civil War Battle of Fort Sanders As construction proceeded on Fort Sanders Hospital cannon balls and Indian relics were found on the building site That same year an affiliated school of nursing accepted its first students Fort Sanders School of Nursing is still in operation but is now affiliated with Tennessee Wesleyan College

In 1954 the hospitals management was assumed by Knoxville Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church US and the name was changed to Fort Sanders Presbyterian Hospital The relationship remained until 1979 when an organizational restructuring changed the name of the institution to Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center which included the hospital several clinical specialty programs the School of Nursing and the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center opened in 1978 and named in honor of actress Patricia Neal a Knoxville native and survivor of three massive strokes

During its quotgrowing yearsquot Fort Sanders hospital became a comprehensive facility that offered the community some important quotfirstsquot in the 1920s the first ambulance service in the area and in the 1940s the first private hospital to have the new quotwonder drugquot penicillin available In the 1970s Fort Sanders began the first hospice in Tennessee and obtained the first linear accelerator in the area for cancer treatment

Fort Sanders Health System

In the 1980s and 90s Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center began to respond to changes in the healthcare environment by affiliating with other organizations to develop a coordinated system of care It entered a lease agreement to operate Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center and its affiliated nursing home in 1981

In 1984 hospital officials restructured the organization to create a parent company named Fort Sanders Alliance

In 1986 employees and the community mounted a fund raising drive for the construction of the Thompson Cancer Survival Center an outpatient cancer treatment center In 1987 Fort Sanders West an outpatient medical mall including physicians offices retail stores a fitness center and child care facility was begun

Loudon County Hospital Joined the system in 1989 and has recently been rebuilt as Fort Loudoun Medical Center and in 1990 Fort Sanders acquired HCA Parkwest Medical Center which changed from a forprofit organization to a notforprofit affiliate Parkwest Medical Center In 1992 the health system began an affiliation process with Peninsula a division of Parkwest Medical Center in the area of behavioral services later assuming full ownership

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is a 541bed fullservice acute care hospital