Rhea nursing home may be leased

By Cliff Hightower

Staff Writer

DAYTON, Tenn. -- Rhea County officials said this week they are exploring whether to lease the county-owned nursing home to a private operator when the county hospital moves into a new building.

"This is an exploration," Rhea Medical Center Chief Operating Officer Ken Croom said. "People have to realize that."

Mr. Croom said hospital board members and officials have talked about what to do with the 90,000-square-foot hospital and nursing home campus. The hospital will move into a new multimillion-dollar medical center in the fall.

Officials invited several nursing home companies to visit, Mr. Croom said. So far, National HeathCare Corp., of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Life Care Centers of America Inc., from Cleveland, Tenn., have toured the campus, Mr. Croom said. The deadline for responding to the county is June 15, he said.

Asked if a lease would cost county employees their jobs, Mr. Croom said, "I can't promise."

But he said the companies told him that an already-trained staff is a plus.

"What they have told us is they need good people," he said. "And we have good people at the nursing home."

The 45,000-square-foot nursing home employs 51 people and houses 89 beds, Mr. Croom said. The home was built in the late 1950s and expanded in 1981, officials said.

Hospital officials are open to a private company expanding the nursing home into the hospital building if the services provided benefit everyone, Mr. Croom said.

James "Bill" Porter, chairman of the hospital board, said he and others have been trying to calm the staff's fear of change and potential job loss.

"We're not going to be ' abandoning' the people that are there," he said. "It's going to be kind of a long process. I don't think anyone is going to lose their job anytime soon."

Hospital board member Ronnie Raper, who is also chairman of the Rhea County Commission, agreed.

"No, we're not selling the nursing home and we're not looking at getting rid of any employees," he said, stressing that the board is only "exploring."

It is unclear whether the County Commission would have to sign off on a lease, officials said.

Board member Harold Fisher said he thinks something needs to be done.

A local veterans affairs officer has proposed letting the VA lease the old hospital building as an outpatient clinic. VA officials have said such an idea is complex and clinics already are planned in McMinn and Roane counties.

Mr. Fisher said it will be hard to separate the old hospital from the nursing home.

"I think both of them will go hand in hand," he said.

E-mail Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com