Parkridge Health System narrowly received approval from a state panel to build a freestanding ER in Cleveland, Tennessee, the first facility of its kind in Bradley County.
The Tennessee Health Facilities Commission voted 4-3 to certify the need for the proposed Parkridge facility after a two-hour hearing in Nashville on Wednesday. Multiple residents of Bradley and Polk counties spoke at the hearing in favor of another ER, describing long wait times or drives in life-or-death situations.
“With only one (emergency department) in Bradley County, strain is inevitable,” Chris Cosby, CEO of Parkridge, told the commission. “In a time of crisis, minutes matter. You got to be able to get into the ER. Our location is easily accessible by patients in the southern part of Bradley County and the southwestern part of Polk County.”
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Bradley Medical Center, which operates the only ER in the county, opposed the approval, which it argued would fragment care in the county.