Medical Center Moves Forward
Once a small community hospital, the Harriman-based Roane Medical Center has grown into a full-service health-care facility offering a full range of diagnostic and treatment services.
Now the hospital is firming up plans to build a new $55 million medical center that will replace the current facility within the next five years, says hospital spokeswoman Nancy Harrison.
That’s good news for residents, who have been used to receiving top-notch care from their local hospital for decades.
Roane Medical Center was established in 1938. Seventy years later, the 150-bed hospital has acquired specialized medical and diagnostic services, including an MRI and CAT scanning equipment.
In 2008, the hospital joined in partnership with Covenant Health, a Knoxville-based, community-owned health system that provides comprehensive health services in six acute-care hospitals and a number of primary care clinics throughout East Tennessee.
The partnership enables the first major construction project at the hospital in decades. Plans call for a brand-new facility and phased-out use of the existing building, Harrison says.
The partnership also gives Roane County residents access to a larger network of primary-care and specialty physicians included in the Covenant Health network.
While the new facility will include state-of-the-art medical care, Roane County Medical Center remains, as it always has, committed to its community roots. The hospital and its leaders have long participated in community activities and in private-public partnerships, such as The Roane Alliance, that promote community development.
Inside the hospital, in addition to inpatient care, the Roane Medical Center provides a 24-hour Emergency Department renovated in the 1990s, heart and lung services, rehab programs, geriatric mental health, industrial medicine, same-day surgery, transportation services and a women’s center.
The hospital also offers The Wellness Center – a fitness facility that provides instruction and guidance in a wide variety of fitness services, including a weight room, resistance training, cardiovascular machines, specialty classes and weight reduction through exercise.
