Joe Winick, right, talks with Erlanger trustee Jennifer Stanley.Erlanger Health System will relocate and upgrade its hospital facilities in the Sequatchie Valley under a $36.9 million plan approved Wednesday by state regulators.
The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency unanimously voted to grant Erlanger certificates of need to build a 25-bed, $32.6 million hospital in Dunlap, Tenn., and to replace the aging Erlanger Bledsoe Hospital with a new $4.3 million emergency center in Pikeville, Tenn.
There was no opposition to the projects, which Erlanger officials said will be financed by Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and operated by Erlanger to upgrade hospital services for Sequatchie, Bledsoe and Grundy counties.
Joe Winick, Erlanger lead executive who has worked on Erlanger plans for upgrading medical services in the Sequatchie Valley for the past decade, said he hopes to begin construction on the new Dunlap hospital and upgraded Pikeville emergency center next year and complete the facilities within two years.
“We’ve worked with community leaders and really put together a plan to enhance the health services to those communities,” Winick said after the state agency approved the projects. “We are very pleased and I think these facilities will be a tremendous addition to both Dunlap and Pikeville.”