West TN Medical News February 2015

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James Crenshaw, Jr., MD

PAGE 3

PHYSICIAN SPOTLIGHT UT Health Science Center

Plans Major Expansion in Tennessee

By CINDy SANDERS

With primary campus locations in Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville, the University of Ten-nessee Health Science Center offers a broad spec-trum of medical and graduate healthcare degree options on both ends of the state.

One area of Tennessee, however, has been no-ticeably missing when it comes to a major health education presence by the state’s fl agship public uni-versity. The recent announcement of an expanded partnership between UTHSC and Saint Thomas Health is set to change that with additions to the Nashville campus that will dramatically increase UT’s educational and training offerings in Middle Tennessee.

UTHSC, headquartered in Memphis, has more than 100 clinical and educational sites across the state, including a number of clinical rotation and residency sites in Middle Tennessee. However, the

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)

By SUZANNE BOyD

Hailing from a small town in Iowa, Deann Montchal spent her childhood on the farm where her family raised not only crops but also pigs and cattle. While she had not thought of nursing as a career, she changed her mind after a family member spent some time in in-tensive care. One thing that has not changed is

Montchal’s love of the slower pace of life out-side of the big city, which made the opportunity to become vice president of hospital services at West Tennessee Healthcare a perfect fi t for her personally and professionally.

When Montchal’s grandmother was in-volved in an accident that landed her in the In-tensive Care Unit, Montchal saw fi rst-hand the


HealthcareLeaderDeann Montchal Vice President of Hospital Services for West Tennessee Healthcare

To promote your business or practice in this high profile spot, contact Pamela Harris at West TN Medical News.

[email protected]

FOCUS TOPICS CARDIOLOGY MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS PAIN MANAGEMENT

Chancellor Steve Schwab

New Device Treats Heart Disease Quicker, CheaperOAS system enables cardiologists to break through intensely calcifi ed arteries

A small, electric medical device designed to break through severely calci-fi ed coronary arteries is drawing praise at Methodist University Hospital ... 5

Benefi tting from ‘Health Information Handlers’Five years ago, the 400-bed Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida faced a crush of Medicare audits and penalties. The 47-year-old, not-for-profi t hospital made a signifi cant change resulting in a complete turnaround by employing an entity with which many healthcare providers remain unfamiliar: the health information handler (HIH) ... 9

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By SUZANNE BOyD

Around West Tennessee the name Crenshaw was common in the medical field, so when James Crenshaw, Jr. de-cided to follow in his father and two un-cles footsteps, it was not a surprise. The youngest Crenshaw, in keeping with tradi-tion chose to practice in West Tennessee, however, he choose a slightly extended path from his predecessors as he chose to specialize in cardiology rather than be a generalist.

Crenshaw, who grew up in Hum-boldt and graduated from Old Hickory Academy, knew medicine was what he wanted to pursue. His father and uncles were general practitioners in Humboldt. “I saw how much my father enjoyed being a doctor and that was really what sparked my interest,” said Crenshaw. “While my dad never pressured me to choose medi-cine, he was glad I did.”

For college, Crenshaw chose the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At that time, pre-med students could apply to medical school at the end of their ju-nior year. If accepted, the student would earn a Bachelor of Arts degree after com-pleting their first year of medical school. Crenshaw applied and was accepted into the medical program at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis.

“Initially I intended to be a general practitioner like my father and my uncles but my dad encouraged me to consider something different,” said Crenshaw. “He thought I might be happier as a special-ist where I would get to do procedures as well as see patients in the office. It took me until the third year of my internal medi-cine residency in Memphis to realize he was right and decide to go into cardiol-ogy.”

After completing his internal medi-cine residency, Crenshaw spent a year as chief resident before starting his cardiol-ogy fellowship at UT-Memphis, which he completed in 1993. Although he inter-viewed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, he felt a tug on his heartstrings to return to West Tennessee to practice. “My dad was di-agnosed with Parkinson’s disease while I was finishing my medical training and was only able to practice one more year after I

began my career,” said Crenshaw. “While I felt I needed to be close to my family to help out, I loved Jackson and knew it pro-vided me a great opportunity to practice cardiology. I love getting to practice big city medicine in a relatively small town. So in 1993, I became the fifth cardiologist at the Jackson Clinic.”

After practicing cardiology for more than twenty years at the clinic, Crenshaw has seen his practice grow significantly and

major advancements in the treatment of heart disease. “Being from a medical fam-ily and from the area, I sort of came into my practice with a head start in terms of people knowing my family which helped my practice grow early on. It is also neat to treat people that I have known or who knew my dad or uncle,” he said. “Also, as baby boomers age, more people are suf-fering from heart disease. And the disease is endemic to this area.”

New treatments and advances in medications to treat heart disease is-sues have provided Crenshaw with new things to learn over the years. “You are almost constantly training on something new. You have to stay on top of things and we are fortunate that the hospital makes sure we have the latest technol-ogy for our specialty,” he said. “There have been so many advancements in our field. One I am very excited about is for the treatment of chronic total occlusions. We now have equipment that will open chronically occluded arteries we could not otherwise access. Even though some techniques that have been around for awhile we can now do safer and more successfully with the news techniques and equipment.”

While his days may be filled with treating ailing hearts, Crenshaw’s home is where his heart is. Although he and his wife of more than 26 years, Amy, have

three biological children, they realized their hearts had room for more. “My wife brought up the idea of adopting a child internationally and once I warmed to the idea of adopting one, it was pretty easy to be convinced not to stop at one,” said Crenshaw. “The Lord has blessed us significantly and we knew we could bless others who may not have the same op-portunities we do. What we have realized though is that we are the ones who have been blessed far more than the kids.”

Today the Crenshaw household in-cludes nine children that range in age from eight to twenty-five. Their oldest son, Nat, is in agriculture aviation and maintenance, daughter Shelby is in nurs-ing school while Kara, their youngest biological child, studies business at UT. Adopted from China are Mae, a junior in high school; seventh grader Cooper; Leah, who is 13 and autistic; and four-teen year old Mac, who joined the fam-ily at the age of six. Rounding out the Crenshaw family are Ross and Winter, biological brothers from Ethiopia who are eleven and eight.

“The Lord laid Ethiopia on our hearts and we knew that siblings are harder to place because not everyone can take more than one child at a time,” said Crenshaw, who is an avid woodworker. “We feel our family is complete and so now the only ad-ditions will be grandchildren.”

James Crenshaw, Jr., MD

PhysicianSpotlight

“Medical Economics,” the

regular monthly column by Bill

Appling, will not appear in this

issue of West TN Medical News

due to the loss of his mother.

His column will resume next

month.

To promote your business or practice in Memphis Medical News, please contact Pamela Harris at 501.247.9189 or [email protected].

Never before have physicians and other healthcare professionals been so strapped for time. And never before has so much information been vital for them to be in the loop on. Medical News, America’s largest network of healthcare newspapers, plays a role in providing important information on national topics and showcasing local trends – all written specifically for healthcare professionals.

GET IT.Don’t fight for their attention.


By CINDy SANDERS

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that there is a major divide between what Americans should do and what is currently being done when it comes adopting healthy cardiovascular lifestyle habits.

Based on data from the Framingham Heart Study – the landmark research proj-ect founded in 1948 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute – a recent multi-institutional study found few in the United States hit the mark … or even come close … in terms of scoring well on the American Heart Association Cardiovascular Health score (CVH score).

“Ideal Cardiovascular Health: Asso-ciations with Biomarkers and Subclinical Disease and Impact on Incidence of Cardiovascular Dis-ease in the Framingham Offspring Study,” which initially published online in Circulation late last fall, investigated the correla-tion between the seven lifestyle factors used to calculate the CVH score and cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence. Multiple past epidemiological studies have shown the correlation between the risk factors and cardiovascular events.

The seven factors used collectively to calculate the CVH score are: 1) non-smok-ing status, 2) body mass index, 3) physical activity, 4) diet, and a favorable profile of 5) serum cholesterol, 6) blood pressure, and 7) blood glucose.

“The better your score, the lower your cardiovascular risk as evidenced by less subclinical atherosclerosis and a lower risk of future cardiovascular events,” noted Thomas J. Wang, MD, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and physician-in-chief for the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute in Nashville and a co-author of the study.

“We know a lot of the health practices that are associated with better cardiovascu-lar outcomes, but there seems to be a dis-connect,” added the professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Of the main findings, Wang contin-ued, “The number of individuals who had ideal cardiovascular health scores was low meaning the number of individuals who adhered to five or more of these healthy lifestyle practices was low.”

In fact, he added, only 1 percent of the Framingham participants included in the data (mean age 58 years; 55 percent women, no overt signs of CVD) had opti-mal marks for all seven. “Fortunately, hav-ing zero healthy lifestyle practices was also uncommon at about 1 percent of people. Most people did at least one thing associ-ated with good cardiovascular health,” Wang said.

However, more than 8 percent did fail to meet the ideal CVH score for at least six of the seven lifestyle factors. “The vast majority of people were at four and below

… 18 percent fell between five and seven,” he continued of scoring well on the seven benchmarks.

“The fact that such a small number of people actually meet all of the cardio-vascular health criteria highlights that there is still a big gap with current lifestyle prac-tices,” he stated.

The group studied originated with the Framingham Offspring cohort par-ticipants attending the sixth examination cycle (1995-1998) when a routine assess-ment of subclinical disease was performed along with assays of multiple biomarkers. From the original group of 3,532 potential participants, more than 850 were excluded for a variety of reasons ranging from preva-lent CVD to unavailable concentrations of biomarkers. While Wang said none of the

final sample of 2,680 participants had overt heart disease at the beginning of the study, during the 15 years the cohort was followed after the baseline examination, a significant number of them developed cardiovascular events. He noted those who developed a CVD event tended to have lower CVH scores at baseline.

“I think people feel as if we’re making a lot of progress with cardiovascular dis-ease, which is true … but it’s still the num-ber one cause of death in America,” Wang stressed.

“Physicians could probably do a better job of encouraging their patients to adhere to these healthy practices and give them strategies for adherence, and patients need to do a better job of adhering to them. I

Affairs of the HeartAmericans & Cardiovascular Health

Dr. Thomas J. Wang

How We Stack Up on the Seven CVH Score FactorsAccording to recent American Heart Association statistics, there is a great

deal of work to do to improve ‘Life’s Simple 7’ … the seven key health factors and behaviors that increase risk for heart disease and stroke. Below is a sample of key findings from the latest statistical update.

SmokingWorldwide, tobacco smoking and secondhand smoke was one of the top

three leading risk factors for disease and contributed to an estimated 6.2 million deaths in 2010.

Despite improvements in smoking rates and education, 16 percent of students grades 9-12 report being current smokers. Among adults, 20 percent of men and 16 percent of women are current smokers.

Physical ActivityAlmost one-third of adults in the United States, 31 percent, report

participating in no leisure time physical activity.Among students 9-12, only about 27 percent meet the AHA recommendation

of 60 minutes of exercise every day.

Healthy DietLess than 1 percent of American adults meet the AHA’s definition of ‘ideal

healthy diet’ and essentially no children met the definition. Increasing whole grains and reducing sodium remain two of the biggest challenges.

Research between 1971 and 2004 showed American women consumed an average of 22 percent more calories and men an average of 10 percent more by the end of that time frame.

Overweight & ObesityMore than 159 million U.S. adults … 69 percent … are overweight or obese.Additionally, nearly one-third of American children … 32 percent … are

overweight or obese with about 24 million being classified as overweight and 13 million as clinically obese.

CholesterolAbout 43 percent of Americans have total cholesterol of 200 mg/dL or higher,

and about 13 percent of Americans have total cholesterol over 240 mg/dL.About 33 percent of Americans have high levels of LDL and around 20

percent have low levels of HDL.

High Blood PressureAbout 80 million U.S. adults, or 33 percent, have high blood pressure. Of

those, about 77 percent are using antihypertensive medication(s), but only about 54 percent have their condition controlled.

Hypertension is projected to increase by about 8 percent by 2030.Rates of high blood pressure in African-Americans are among the highest of

any population in the world. In the United States, 46 percent of African-American women and 45 percent of African-American men have high blood pressure.

Blood Sugar/DiabetesAbout 21 million Americans … or nearly 9 percent of the adult population …

have diagnosed diabetes. Another 35 percent of Americans have pre-diabetes.

AHA Releases Updated Worldwide, U.S. Heart & Stroke Statistics

Last December, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association released updated heart and stroke statistics in the United States … and, for the first time in the 50 years such information has been provided, added a global perspective with health data compiled from nearly 200 countries.

Key findings from “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2015 Update” include:

• Heart disease remains the No. 1 global cause of death with 17.3 million deaths annually. The annual death toll is expected to rise to more than 23.6 million by 2030, according to the report.

• Stroke, which has fallen to the No. 4 cause of death in the United States, remains the No. 2 cause of death in the world. Although the number of deaths per 100,000 declined worldwide between 1990 and 2010, the number of people having a first or recurrent stroke increased each year, reaching 33 million in 2010.

• In the United States, nearly 787,000 people died from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases in 2011. Nearly 2,150 Americans die daily from cardiovascular diseases … or one person every 40 seconds … accounting for approximately 1 in every 3 deaths in this country.

• Additionally, about 85.6 million Americans are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke.

• The AHA estimates direct and indirect costs of CVD and stroke in this country to be more than $320 billion.

• Breaking heart disease out separately from stroke in America, heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States with more than 375,000 dying annually … or about one person every 90 seconds.

• Nearly half of all African-Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease and more than 39,000 died from heart disease in 2011.

• On the plus side, the death rate from heart disease fell about 39 percent between 2001 and 2011. The physical and cost burden, however, remain incredibly high. About 735,000 people in America have heart attacks each year (accounting for approximately 120,000 deaths), and cardiovascular procedures and operations increased around 28 percent between 2000 to 2010.



By LAWRENCE BUSER A small, electric medical device de-

signed to break through severely calcified coronary arteries is drawing praise at Methodist University Hospital.

Methodist is the first in West Tennessee to use the device – called the Diamondback 360 Coronary Orbital Atherectomy System (OAS) – according to the hospital and the OAS manufacturer.

In November, Rami Khouzam, MD, director of the cardiac cath lab at Meth-odist, performed the first of about a half-dozen local procedures with the OAS, which is made by Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (CSI) of St. Paul, Minn.

“Until now, inter-ventional cardiologists have only been able to successfully treat patients with minor plaque buildup,” said Khouzam, who is also associate professor of medicine and program director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

“The (OAS) enables cardiologists to break through intensely calcified arter-ies which represent up to 40 percent of coronary lesions,” he said. “Without this technology, patients with heavily calci-fied arteries would need to be treated with open-heart surgery, leading to longer re-covery times, lengthier hospital stays and significantly higher costs.”

There would seem to be a ready mar-ket for the procedure.

According to the American Heart As-sociation, 16.3 million men and women in the United States have coronary artery disease, a life-threatening condition that occurs when fatty material called plaque builds up on the walls of arteries, causing them to harden, narrow and reduce blood flow to the heart.

Some 600,000 people die every year -- one of every four deaths -- from heart disease.

CSI received clearance in 2007 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use the OAS system for peripheral arter-ies, and in October 2013 the approval was extended for use in coronary arteries, said CSI spokesman Jack Nielsen.

The company says the Diamondback OAS is the first coronary system for cal-cium removal, known as atherectomy, in more than 20 years.

Some 2,600 of the de-vices have been sold to lead-

ing institutions across the United States, and the company plans to

move into the international market in the next few years, Nielsen said.

He added that other hospitals in Ten-nessee using the device include Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Turkey Creek Medical Center in Knox-ville and Johnson City Medical Center.

The Diamondback utilizes an elec-trically driven 1.25mm diamond-coated crown to sand away calcified plaque in coronary arteries, clearing the way for placement of a stent and the resumption of normal blood flow.

As the crown rotates and orbit in-creases, centrifugal force presses the crown against the lesion, reducing arterial cal-cium without injury to healthy tissue.

“The patient has a regular cardiac catheterization, through the femoral or radial approach, under conscious seda-tion and local anesthesia,” Khouzam said. “Guide wires are passed through the guid-ing catheter to cross the stenotic/calcified lesion inside the coronary artery. Then the CSI orbital atheterectomy is used over the wire with multiple rotations at 80,000 to 120,000 rpm. This facilitates the path of the stent, which otherwise would not be able to cross some of these lesions.”

He said the procedure involves only a few minutes of treatment time.

Khouzam added that the risk for cor-onary artery disease increases if a person has high blood pressure, abnormal choles-terol, diabetes or a family history of heart disease.

He said the OAS is easier, less cum-bersome and more user friendly to phy-sicians and lab staff compared to the old Rotablator system, which, he said, uses an older, less efficient technology.

“Rare potential risks of using either technology is dissection, perforation of the coronary arteries, which are potential complications anyway when performing high-risk percutaneous coronary interven-tions in such heavily calcified and diseased arteries,” Khouzam said.

Methodist University Hospital, a core teaching hospital for UTHSC, is part of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, an in-tegrated health delivery system.

New Device Treats Heart Disease Quicker, CheaperOAS system enables cardiologists to break through intense plaque

Dr. Rami Khouzam

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bulk of the educational programs have been housed in Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.

Current Campus SitesMemphis: In 1911, the University

of Tennessee launched its Memphis cam-pus, dedicating it solely to health science education and research. Today, the main campus houses each of the UTHSC’s six colleges – Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Almost 2,700 students are now enrolled at UTHSC, and there are more than 45,000 alumni who have received medical and advanced de-grees from the six colleges. More than 75 percent of dentists and 40 percent of den-tists practicing in Tennessee are UTHSC graduates.

Chattanooga: The University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chatta-nooga is one of three statewide campuses providing medical student and postgradu-ate physician education. UTCOM Chat-tanooga has 10 residency programs and nine fellowships with 172 active residents in training. Additionally, nearly 100 med-ical students complete a portion of their third and fourth year clinical training in Chattanooga annually. In addition, UTC offers multiple health science graduate programs through the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies.

Knoxville: The largest undergradu-ate campus, UTK also houses multiple graduate programs in research and the health sciences. In 2007, a second UT College of Pharmacy building opened on the Knoxville campus and now en-rolls 40-50 students annually. Knoxville is also home to the Health Science Center’s Graduate School of Medicine. The Col-lege of Health Professions has maintained its Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology in Knoxville for more than six decades, and UTK also features graduate nursing programs including MSN, DNP and PhD programming to prepare nurses

for advanced practice roles.

Nashville: UTHSC has entered into a core teaching hospital partnership with Saint Thomas Health. Although still in early stages, the expectation is that there will be a role for all six of UTHSC’s col-leges on the new Nashville Saint Thomas clinical campus when the program reaches maturity. Residency programs are already in place but will greatly expand. In 2014, the College of Pharmacy converted its ex-isting Nashville Clinical Education Center into a major academic site allowing up to 40 student pharmacists from each of the second-, third-, and fourth-year classes to complete their curriculum in Nashville.

Middle Tennessee ExpansionIn an announcement made last

month, UTHSC plans as much as a $40 million investment in Middle Tennessee in partnership with Saint Thomas Health. Current speculation calls for the Nash-ville campus to be built adjacent to Saint Thomas West on approximately six acres of land.

Jessica Wells, vice president of Medi-cal Education for Saint Thomas Health, noted, “The university is a statewide in-stitution but has been noticeably missing in the Middle Tennes-see area.” However, she added, that has been changing as the UTHSC/Saint Thomas Health partnership has grown. Wells stated, “Saint Thomas and the university are committed to providing that presence here and doing whatever we need to collaboratively work through the process.”

Currently, Middle Tennessee has five residency programs at Saint Thomas Health hospitals in general surgery, family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology. The first four programs have received accredi-

tation, and Wells said the expectation is that the OB/GYN program will be ac-credited by the end of this month.

“Right now there are about 22 resi-dencies,” Wells said. “That will grow to about 115 at full complement.” She added that while medical residencies have been Saint Thomas Health’s first priority, at-tention is now expanding to the full con-tinuum of healthcare providers trained by UTHSC.

Wells said Saint Thomas launched a physician assistant residency program at the beginning of January and is looking at adding or expanding educational and clinical opportunities for a host of other disciplines such as dentistry, nursing, lab technicians, dental hygienists, nurse prac-titioners and physical therapists.

However, she noted, “That’s a multi-year planning process to be able to build the infrastructure and the capabilities to provide all of that in Middle Tennessee.”

The hope also is that medical stu-dents might be able to complete part of their education in Middle Tennessee … whether that be just spending their final year in Nashville or perhaps more. Simi-larly, preliminary discussions are already underway to establish a Nashville pres-ence for the College of Dentistry as part of the expanded partnership.

Wells said Saint Thomas Health sees the expanded UTHSC relationship as nothing but complementary to partner-ships the health system already has in place with Marian University and Aqui-nas, as well as its relationships with other local universities including Belmont, Lip-scomb, and Vanderbilt.

“We are really a community-focused institution who believes in training the next generation of providers to care for people in the community in our mission of holistic and reverent care,” Wells said. “For those who want to live and work in Middle Tennessee, this just gives us an-other training opportunity.”

Chancellor Addresses Speculation in Memphis

The excitement over the Nashville expansion led some to worry about what that might mean for the main campus in Memphis. Chancellor Steve Schwab, MD, was quick to allay any fears and reiterate previously announced growth would con-tinue on the main campus. He also stated unequivocally that Memphis would con-tinue to be, as it has been for more than a century, the home campus for UTHSC.

In a statement released Jan. 9, he said, “Recently, there has been substan-tial media coverage of the long-planned UTHSC Nashville expansion. This cover-age has been driven by announcement of the accreditation of the College of Medi-cine/Saint Thomas Health Advanced Residency Programs in surgery, emer-gency medicine, and family medicine, as well as the anticipated OB/GYN program approval and growth of our long-standing internal medicine program in Nashville.”

Schwab continued, “In tandem with the media coverage, there has been edito-rial speculation about what the Nashville expansion means for the UTHSC home campus in Memphis. As we have clearly stated, this means ongoing expansion for the Memphis home campus with the continuation of more than $300 million in upgrades as outlined in the recently re-leased UTHSC Campus Master Plan. It is our expectation that our Nashville site will grow to mirror the size and scope of the UTHSC Knoxville Campus with all the UTHSC colleges having some form of clinical training, as well as the College of Pharmacy offering didactic education.”

UT Health Science Center Plans Major Expansion, continued from page 1

Jessica Wells

think, as with all things in medicine, it is a joint effort,” Wang said.

While the study findings might seem intuitive to some extent, Wang pointed out, “It is important to continually remind physicians about the fundamental impor-tance of healthy lifestyle factors in lower-ing the risk of cardiovascular events.” He added, “It also serves as motivation for the scientific community to better understand the biological mechanisms linking lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise to lower cardiovascular risk.”

Wang recognized medical interac-tions occur in very tight timeframes these days, which makes it difficult for providers to cover the full spectrum of useful infor-mation with patients. However, he noted, there are a number of organizations at the national level – including the American Heart Association and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute – that offer excel-lent tools and resources that can be printed or accessed online to help patients better understand the importance of healthy life-style strategies.

“It’s clear that a better lifestyle would not just be associated with better cardio-vascular outcomes but also with less death from cancer and other diseases, as well,” Wang concluded of the critical need to change American habits.

Affairs, continued from page 4


About Every 34 Seconds, An American

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Don’t Be A Statistic

By JULIE PARKER

When Beverly Smallwood, PhD, was making the rounds discussing her candidly written book and video training program, This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen to Me: 10 Make or Break Choices When Life Steals Your Dreams and Rocks Your World, based on many adversities she and others had over-come, she admittedly thought most of her woes were behind her.

However, life stopped Smallwood in her tracks on Aug. 25, 2014, a typical Monday packed with clinical client ap-pointments.

“I’d received a call from the jail of a neighboring county, asking if I could come and evaluate an inmate that was causing all kinds of problems by behaviors as extreme as smearing feces on the wall,” recalled Smallwood, a psychologist spe-cializing in counseling trauma survivors. “As you might imagine, they were quite eager to get him transferred to a hospital for mental treatment. I agreed to help.”

Around 5:45 pm, Smallwood was in the midst of the 30-minute journey on a state highway, traveling 55 mph in the right lane.

“Suddenly, there was a loud crash, the sound of breaking glass, and chaos as the car was tossed this way and that,” she recalled. “Then the vehicle came to a stop, smoke coming into the car. The airbags were all deployed, and my seatbelt was still intact.”

Smallwood’s Nissan Murano was to-taled; the Jaws of Life were needed to pry her from the twisted metal. Her left hip was broken in two places, along with other painful injuries that would keep her in the hospital for five weeks.

Smallwood later learned a woman driver with only minimal liability insur-ance had sped across two lanes from the opposite side, never slowed down in the median, and plowed directly into her SUV.

“That was the beginning, but not the end of the ordeal,” recalled Smallwood, who endured surgery and had begun the lengthy rehabilitation process when an-other family tragedy occurred. “Ten days after my accident, the unthinkable and unimaginable happened. My beloved old-est grandchild, Joseph, committed suicide. It was a total shock. Joseph was a wonder-ful Christian boy who’d never given his parents a minute’s trouble.”

In addition to the unspeakable grief of losing her grandson, Smallwood felt the additional pain of being unable to be there to comfort her daughter, Amy, son-in-law and Joseph’s two brothers.

“The shock, grief, and every emotion in the human psyche have been almost unbearable,” she said. “But I knew that I had purpose and that I still had work to

do. So I hung on.” Then, just before Christmas, Small-

wood’s family suffered another devastat-ing loss when news broke that her former brother-in-law had been found dead, ap-parently from foul play. At press time, the case remains under investigation.

“In all of these experiences, I’ve had to be absolutely in submission to and dependence on God and to put the ‘10 Choices’ to work as never before,” said

Smallwood. She still uses a walker and a cane to move around, just returned to the driver’s seat in December, remains unable to sit for more than 45 minutes without significant pain, and refuses or minimizes potentially addictive pain medication.

“I’d experienced tragedy and trauma before in my life, and walked through hor-rific places with thousands of others in my clinical practice at The Hope Center and in my seminar audiences,” she said. “But

these experiences, piled on top of each other, were definitely dream-stealers and world-rockers. It hasn’t been easy.”

Smallwood took her own advice and turned her worries over to a higher power.

“So many amazing things have hap-pened that can only be attributed to God’s mercy,” said Smallwood. “I remember being in the hospital after hearing the news about Joseph when the bank called, saying

Overcoming an Abundance of AdversityPopular motivational speaker and psychologist lives the meaning of “Physician, Heal Thyself”

Dr. Beverly Smallwood



I was in the hole and needed $4,500 that day to cover overhead expenses. I wasn’t in a position to work, obviously, so I told the banker I’d call her back. I put the situation in God’s hands. That afternoon, my assistant pulled a check from the mail for $5,000 from a forensic case that was considerably past due. The timing! That’s just one example. It’s happened over and over.”

Smallwood’s also learned afresh the power of social media. Her continuous candid and hopeful Facebook updates have received thousands of thumbs up from friends, family, and supporters.

“I’m not sure exactly where all this is taking me, but it’ll continue to center around my life’s mission to help bring out the best in people,” said Smallwood, who acknowledged the physical limitations and rehabilitation process have spurred her to consider work she might not have done otherwise. While she will still do some counseling and coaching of other therapists at The Hope Center, she’s also implementing new ways of helping people. For instance, she’ll soon co-launch an on-line leadership training program, Leading in Good Faith, with fellow leadership ex-pert Barry Banther. Additionally, she and her daughter Amy, Joseph’s mother, will unite as consultants and team developers with Rodan & Fields, an anti-aging skin care program developed by two world-renowned dermatologists.

“Even when you experience losses that rob you of physical abilities or impor-tant relationships, you don’t quit,” Small-wood said. “As long as you’re breathing, you have purpose. Sometimes, it just re-quires a little adjustment to fi gure out how you fulfi ll your purpose in a changed life situation.”

In the last six months, Smallwood has reached a deeper realization that every-thing in life can shift and change in an in-stant, often through no fault of one’s own.

“I can remember lying fl at of my back in that hospital bed, unable to move or get up on my own, and humbly dependent on healthcare workers for the most embar-rassing and intimate of personal care,” she said. “I’ve found that every source of se-curity other than God can be taken away. In my case, I lost my health, my ability to work, my independence, and even the ability to live out the strong value of family support. But I didn’t lose my faith. What you learn in the valley far surpasses what you typically learn on the mountaintop.”

Overcoming an Abundance,continued from page 7

Psychologist Beverly Smallwood, PhD, established The Hope Center in 1984 for counseling and evaluation services, and Magnetic Workplaces ™ for corporate leadership and teambuilding programs. A frequent motivational speaker, her audiences are worldwide.

By CINDy SANDERS

After a record-setting year of mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector for 2014, a recent survey by U.S. audit, tax and advisory fi rm KPMG LLP indicates 2015 will offer more of the same.

A number of considerations ranging from cash-rich balance sheets to changing business models driven by the Affordable Care Act to easier access to capital are expected to fuel the contin-ued feeding frenzy for those looking to en-large their corporate footprint. Conversely, for those facing increasingly tight margins and regulatory oversight, the timing could be right to take the money and run.

“We are seeing a convergence of fac-tors facing providers, health plans, and drug and device makers that are forcing them to make tough decisions about strat-egy,” noted Bill Baker, the national partner in charge of transaction services for KP-MG’s Healthcare & Life Sciences Practice. He added those hard decisions sometimes include selling their business or practice.

Texas-based Baker, continued, “Technology, regulation, consumerism and pushback from employers and gov-ernment payers are reshaping all facets of healthcare, forcing companies to review all of their options. The capital markets – low interest rates and strong valuations – are creating favorable conditions for those considering selling or divesting assets.”

The Year That WasThe Associated Press recently re-

ported 2014 was one of the most active years for healthcare M&A activity in the last decade. KPMG noted that through the fi rst three quarters of 2014, deal value across all industry sectors reached nearly $1 trillion, returning the United States to pre-recession levels.

Irving Levin Associates, a leading healthcare market intelligence fi rm based in Connecticut, seconded the sentiment with data showing similar transaction in-creases specifi c to the healthcare industry. In nine of 13 healthcare industry sectors, there were an increased number of deals for 2014 in comparison to 2013. Through Dec. 19, 2014, Levin’s The Health Care M&A Information Source had captured 1,208 deals across healthcare, which was an increase of 17 percent over 2013. Spending also was up signifi cantly for deals in 2014 v. 2013 at $386 billion compared to $163 billion.

Leading the way in transactions was eHealth (up 65 percent in 2014) and bio-technology (up 50 percent). Long-term care, managed care, pharmaceuticals, rehabilitation and other services also had double digit increases in deal activity for 2014 over 2013.

Behavioral health and medical devices had more modest gains at 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively. However, trans-actions are anticipated to be strong in the coming year. Nashville-based Acadia Healthcare led the way in the behavioral health market with a fourth quarter an-nouncement the company would purchase CRC Health Group out of Cupertino, Calif., which has more than 140 programs treating 44,000 patients daily. The transac-tion, estimated to be valued at nearly $1.2 billion, is expected to close in the fi rst quar-ter of 2015.

2015 M&A Outlook SurveyLooking ahead, KPMG, in collabora-

tion with SourceMedia’s Research Practice Group (publisher of Mergers & Acquisi-tions), surveyed 738 M&A professionals in the United States last fall about anticipated activity across a broad spectrum of indus-tries. Survey participants work in senior management at companies advising an array of industries including healthcare,

energy, financial services, technology, manufacturing, and consumer products.

Of those surveyed, a full 82 per-cent said they were planning at least

one acquisition in 2015 and 10 per-cent said they expected to do 11 or more deals this coming year. Per-haps not surprisingly, deals touching the healthcare industry, which is in

the midst of transformative change, were predicted to lead the way with 84 percent of the experts saying they ex-

pected heavy healthcare activity. Almost half of respondents (47 per-

cent) expect technology companies, includ-ing those tied to the healthcare industry, to be the most active individual industry sector for mergers and acquisitions. Com-ing in second, nearly one-third of the pro-fessionals anticipate pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to be the most active M&A sector in 2015. Expiring patents for a num-ber of leading drugs plus the need to hone product portfolios to build ‘franchises in key treatment categories’ are two factors behind the anticipated jump in activity for the pharma/biotech industry.

Additionally, 27 percent of the experts think healthcare providers are ripe for con-solidation and cited forces tied to the ACA as being the primary driver of such moves. However, regulatory factors are expected to play an increasingly prominent role in decision-making on the front end consider-ing the Federal Trade Commission’s scru-tiny of several large deals last year.

Among those being surveyed, some due diligence issues were seen as a big-ger factor within the healthcare industry than in other sectors. In addition to how a merger or acquisition might impact the competitive landscape, healthcare pro-viders also are perceived as being more concerned about cultural shifts when join-ing forces. The experts cited the cultural assessment as being a larger factor for healthcare companies in comparison to all industries (32 percent v. 28 percent).

“Mergers and acquisitions are never easy for everyone involved,” Baker pointed out. He added that negotiating a favor-able and mutually acceptable transaction is just the fi rst step. “Managing the vari-ous stakeholders of ownership, employees, customers and vendors during an integra-tion process can be daunting … and, if not executed properly, can destroy the very benefi ts the transaction was modeled on generating,” Baker said.

Another due diligence issue expected to factor prominently in healthcare trans-actions is volatility of future revenue streams, which was cited as a key issue among respondents for healthcare compa-nies at a rate of 58 percent as opposed to ‘all industries’ at 51 percent. Interestingly, ‘quality of earnings,’ while still a key due diligence factor for the healthcare sector, trailed industry averages at 29 percent for healthcare companies compared to an av-erage of 42 percent for all industries.

Experts Predict Another Year of Robust Healthcare M&A

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By JULIE PARKER

Five years ago, the 400-bed Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida faced a crush of Medicare audits and penalties. The 47-year-old, not-for-profit hospital made a significant change resulting in a complete turnaround by employing an en-tity with which many healthcare providers remain unfamiliar: the health information handler (HIH).

“According to hospital officials there, the previous process had been cum-bersome, and meant printing, sorting, packaging and mailing documents to Medicare to support claims and to adjudicate their bills,” said Lindy Benton, CEO of Norcross, Ga.-based Medical Electronic At-t a c h m e n t / N a t i o n a l Electronic Attachment (MEA/NEA), a certified HIH that has electroni-cally delivered and tracked patient medical records for healthcare providers nation-wide via CONNECT, an open source health information exchange software that serves as the National Health Information Network’s (NwHIN) transmission mode for esMD (electronic submission of medical documentation). “Since one patient record can fill a box or more, hospitals are left paying for all materials, labor and shipping involved … enormous financial consider-

ations for every organization.” Because the Boca Raton hospital is

now able to submit documents electroni-cally via an HIH, the Medicare audit pro-cess has dramatically improved and denials related to untimely submission of records have disappeared entirely, Benton noted.

Benton explains: “For example, Medi-care allows 45 days from the date of request for hospitals to respond, but Medicare still sends documentation requests by paper. Typically, by the time the request arrives at the proper hospital department, more than 10 days has elapsed. Managing the entire process requires a very strict time requirement and hospitals often fail to re-turn records to Medicare on time, which blocks hospitals from making appeals. By automating the process and securely depos-iting electronic attachments to Medicare’s official information portal, Boca Raton Re-gional Hospital has prevented the loss of at least $350,000.”

What exactly is a health information handler?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which manages the HIH program, defines an HIH as “any organi-zation that handles health information on behalf of a provider.” HIHs are often refer-enced as claim clearinghouses, release of in-formation vendors, and health information exchanges (HIEs), and most also provide esMD gateway services.

“esMD is still a work in progress, an ongoing experiment, spearheaded by CMS

to support electronic exchange of informa-tion between health systems and Medicare audit contractors,” explained Benton. “Prior to esMD, providers had just two ways in which to respond to documenta-tion requests from Medicare review audit contractors – mail or fax. esMD fixed that problem.”

The esMD gateway isn’t set up like a typical website, Benton pointed out.

“Not everyone wanting to submit in-formation via the gateway can simply jump on, upload files and press the ‘send’ but-ton,” she noted. “To interact with CMS through esMD, organizations need access to the portal. The gateways are costly to de-velop and maintain so hospitals and provid-ers turn to HIHs to facilitate the exchange process. HIHs build and service an esMD gateway for multiple provider participants and submit electronic documentation on a provider’s behalf. As more providers use HIHs to simplify their audit processes, electronic health information exchange also will increase in usability.”

Slated improvements are poised to fur-ther streamline this process. The HIH pro-gram has been effective for more than three years – phase 1 went into effect on Sept. 15, 2011 – and phase 2 will allow providers the ability to receive electronic documentation requests when their claims are selected for review … when CMS launches it.

“From a business and enterprise per-spective, the move by CMS to launch the program has meant the growth of a num-

ber of HIH firms like ours that offer a vari-ety of services and skill sets,” said Benton. “In addition to providing exchange capa-bilities, some allow for capture of informa-tion, scanning, storage and transmission in a secure manner. The HIHs also track data sent, and acknowledge and verify that it’s been received by auditors through the gateway … are considered business associ-ates of the organizations they serve, and are required by CMS to follow HIPAA rules.”

Challenges remain, emphasized Ben-ton.

“There are hurdles to widespread im-plementation as hospitals resist using the so-lutions because they’re overwhelmed with current technology,” she said. “They’re already so invested in other projects that many are unable to see the benefits of bringing on additional solutions and being able to exchange information with CMS. A prevailing thought is that those managing hospital IT departments simply are over-whelmed and growing ever more noncha-lant about the idea that technology is going to save them or their employers any more than already has been promised.

“In fact, recent reports have begun to surface claiming that CIOs at struggling health systems have little faith that new technologies, on top of recently imple-mented systems like EHRs, will do much good for them since these other solutions – the EHRs – had such little positive effect on their organizations’ bottom lines. Sim-

Benefitting from ‘Health Information Handlers’

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ply put, they’re sensing a bit of personal doom and growing tired of all the hype. It’s unfortunate.”

Also, for payers, despite the obvious benefi ts of encouraging HIH relationships with physicians, esMD and electronic ex-change aren’t top priority, considering all the issues being managed, including the current federal insurance overhaul.

“Perhaps time will change this, but for the foreseeable future, esMD isn’t likely to gain the traction it needs to become an industry standard,” observed Benton. “What’s fortunate is that service providers like HIHs are having a positive impact on the healthcare environment and are bring-ing down some pretty mighty horses, while also helping bring about better workfl ows, improved effi ciencies and increased profi t-ability. Despite the lack of awareness sur-rounding these healthcare partners and their impact across the sector, many are still unaware of HIHs’ purpose and the very term by which they’re defi ned.”

Benefi tting,continued from page 9

impact nurses can have. That experience led her to decide nursing was the career for her. After graduating high school in a class of 50 students, she headed to the University of Iowa. She earned her Bachelor of Sci-ence in Nursing in 1991. She started her career as a nurse at the University of Iowa Medical Center in Iowa City where she re-mained until 2012.

“I started as a cardiac nurse and worked in the ICU. I moved into man-agement and progressed from there into administration,” said Montchal. “I had worked in several different service lines and in 2012, was working as the chief of operations of the Heart Hospital when I learned of the position at West Tennessee Healthcare.”

Montchal found the fi t at WTH a good one not only in terms of the job but the people and the area. As vice president of hospital services, Montchal is responsible for the Heart and Vascular Center, Phar-macy, Respiratory Care, Radiology and Imaging, Dialysis, Wound Clinic and the Infusion Clinic. “It was a great opportunity for me that had lots of room for growth. I also liked the culture of the organization as well as the people I met on the leadership team,” she said. “And as a small town girl, I loved the feel of Jackson, it has an outstand-ing medical community and lots of ameni-ties, but still had the pace of a smaller town. It was a great fi t for me and my family.”

Coming from a nursing background, Montchal values the importance of relation-ships and sees them as an integral part of her management style. “You have to be able to develop relationships and develop trust with all those you work with from physicians to families. In the end it is all about people and you cannot forget that they are at the core of your business,” said Montchal. “One of my greatest mentors, who is now the CEO at the University of Massachusetts Hospital, always made it about the people and related it to the positive impact you can have on them. I have really focused on that through-out my career and it is the relationships I have developed with those I work with that I am most proud of.”

While the basic of her management style has not changed much, Montchal

says you have to be open to learning new things. “There is a natural learning curve in anything you do over time,” she says. “And the way healthcare changes, you have got to be malleable and open to new ways to improve. You cannot be stagnant and have to always be looking for ways to improve.”

This mindset led Montchal to pursue her Master of Business Administration de-gree in 2004, right in the midst of growing her career and raising two children. “That was one of the most challenging times in my career, but one that was needed in order for me to grow personally and profes-sionally,” she said. I have learned that with life challenges come growth opportunities. Being able to grow, expand my role and do new things over the course of my career is something I am proud of.”

Learning to manage in the midst of payment reform has also proven to be a challenge for Montchal as it has meant managing in a completely different way and is something she works on every single day. “As a result we are not only having to evaluate new services and we are also trying to fi nd ways to align physicians and hospitals to work closely together,” she said. “Payment reform has created a need for us to align strategies more than ever before. We now are looking at how to really managed patients based on disease process before, during and after their hos-pital stay. It is no longer just about what happens when they are here in our facility but more about the responsibility we have to the community and our patients to care about their entire health and well being.”

Collaboration does not just happen between departments. Montchal networks with other organizations as well as with col-leagues from the University of Iowa, Cleve-land Clinic and Vanderbilt to name a few, to share ideas and processes that have been successful. She says these connections are so helpful because you can learn from one another, since there seems to be no cookie cutter approach that works among all the changes that are happening in healthcare.

Other changes that Montchal is ex-cited about are the new technologies and new programs being brought to West Ten-nessee including Clinical Research. “Clini-

cal research will allow our community to stay local and receive some of the latest ad-vances in medicine and technology without having to drive to a large city,” she said. “We are just beginning our fi rst trial and will continue to add trials as those come along that meet the needs of our commu-nity.”

Outside of her professional career, Montchal has been a busy mother of two. Her oldest son, who played high school and college football, will graduate in May from Medical School at the University of Iowa. Her daughter, who competes on a national level in barrel racing, will graduate from high school this year. “Although my kids were very involved and I rarely missed one of their events,” said Montchal, who is a huge football fan. “It was hard and I did not sleep a lot but I found a way to balance it all. Fortunately the kids were older when I came to West Tennessee Healthcare, so the move had minimal impact.”

Healthcare Leader: Deann Montchal, continued from page 1

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Methodist Healthcare Announces Plans to Close Methodist Fayette Hospital

Methodist Healthcare announced a dif-ficult decision the hospital system has had to make that involves closing its hospital in Somerville, Tennessee, Methodist Fayette Hospital. The tentative closing date for the hospital is Friday, March 27. Methodist of-ficials have sent a letter to State HSDA and licensure officials to advise them of the hos-pital’s plans.

Gary Shorb, CEO for Methodist Healthcare said that over the last few years, inpatient volume has declined significantly, and the hospital has been averaging a daily inpatient census of approximately one pa-tient, which is not sustainable.

Methodist Recruitment will work with Associates at Fayette to pursue other op-portunities within the Methodist system and to support external job searches as needed.

Other Methodist Healthcare opera-tions are not affected by this move, other than to prepare for small increases in vol-ume from Fayette County residents seeking care at one of our other facilities.

During this transition, hospital officials are coordinating with ambulance services and other first responders to be sure there is a plan in place for quick access to care as needed.

Methodist will continue to fulfill its mis-sion at its seven other hospitals, surgery centers, diagnostic centers, physician prac-tices and related programs.

Bolivar General Hospital Offers New Services

Bolivar General Hospital now of-fers gastroenterology services. Dr. Sufiyan Chaudhry, is a board certi-fied gastroenterologist af-filiated with West Tennes-see Gastro in Jackson. Dr. Chaudhry is seeing patients and performing procedures in the Outpatient Clinic at Bolivar General Hospital. He specializes in the treat-ment of the digestive system and its dis-orders and is specially trained in advanced diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic pro-cedures.

Dr. Chaudhry did his Gastroenterology/Hepatology Fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Mem-phis as well as his internship and residency. He graduated from Medical School at the King Edward Medical University in Pakistan.

New services also include a sleep lab-oratory at Bolivar General Hospital for the diagnosis of sleep apnea and other sleep-related disorders.

The sleep lab monitors patients as they sleep at normal bedtimes in sleep study beds. A team of board-certified sleep spe-cialists review the study results and give them to primary care physicians who will meet with patients to discuss the results and explain treatment options. For more information or to make an appointment call 731-658-3100.

Sports Plus Rehab Centers Receive FOTO Outcomes Excellence Certificate

Three Sports Plus Rehab Centers have been awarded an Outcomes Excellence Certificate from Focus On Therapeutic Out-comes, Inc. (FOTO), a nationwide outcomes data base and reporting service for health-care providers. Sports Plus Dyersburg, Sports Plus Trenton at Trenton Medical Cen-ter and Work Plus Rehab Center have all received this high honor. These certificates are presented to a select group of provid-ers across the country to recognize the ex-cellence achieved in effectiveness of treat-ment during the past twelve months. Sports Plus has demonstrated a greater increase in function for their patients than the national aggregate average.

FOTO has provided outcome data to healthcare providers since 1994. More than 1,000 organizations have contributed to the FOTO data base.

FOTO outcomes data are beneficial because they provide a benchmark mea-sure for overall quality and value of the services offered by an organization. FOTO has the first Functional Health Status Mea-sure approved for physical rehabilitation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s list of approved quality measures in the National Quality Measures Clearing-house (NQMC), a public repository for ev-idence-based quality measures sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Jackson-Madison County General Promotes Yellow Dot Program

The Yellow Dot Program is a nationwide program designed to provide crucial medi-cal information to emergency responders in the event of a vehicle incident. In Tennes-see the program is a product of the Tennes-see Department of Transportation.

Immediately following a car crash, first responders have what is known as “the golden hour,” which is the time when medi-cal care can mean the difference between life and death. All too often, victims cannot communicate important information. Upon seeing the “Yellow Dot” sticker on the par-ticipant’s vehicle, first responders have been trained to go immediately to the glove com-partment of the vehicle to obtain vital infor-mation and a photo provided inside the Yel-low Dot folder.

The Yellow Dot program is aimed toward senior drivers in the state of Ten-nessee. In 2012, Tennessee had 1,613,749 licensed drivers ages 55+. Nationally, by 2020 there will be more than 40 million li-censed older drivers.

The Senior Services Department and the Medical Center EMS department at Jackson-Madison County General Hospi-tal have partnered together to promote the Yellow Dot program in the senior adult community of West Tennessee. They have presented the program to many church and civic groups, the MAC Club, and the SWAAAD Senior Expo. They have served well over 300 people since beginning the program 6 months ago.

Regional Hospital of Jackson and BlueCross Sign Agreement

Regional Hospital of Jackson and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee have finalized a multi-year agreement. Effec-tive immediately, the agreement provides BlueCross members in-network access to services at Regional Hospital of Jackson and its employed physician practices, whether elective or emergency. The change applies to the health plan’s Blue Network PSM and Blue Network SSM as well as its Medicare Advantage and Medicaid products.

Last year, the quality of care provided

at Regional Hospital of Jackson was recog-nized with recertification as an Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI from the Society of Chest Pain Centers. The hospital also be-came the first in Jackson/Madison County to receive gold seals from The Joint Com-mission in Joint Replacement – Knee and Joint Replacement – Hip and is one of 1,099 hospitals earning The Joint Commission distinction of Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for attaining and sustaining excel-lence in the following measures: Heart At-tack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, and Surgical Care.

Dr. Sufiyan Chaudhry

West Tennessee Healthcare To Construct New Medical CenterConstruction will soon begin on a beautiful, new 12,855 square foot Medical Center in

Trenton. The West Tennessee Healthcare Board of Trustees passed a resolution to build the new facility at its January 27 meeting.

The new facility, to be located at 2017 South College Street, will consolidate the current Trenton Medical Center and Sports Plus Rehab Center in a spacious, easily accessed location on 2.83 acres in Trenton already owned by West Tennessee Healthcare.

The new Trenton Medical Center will offer primary care services by Dr. Jim Williams and the staff of Christian Family Medicine, post discharge follow up care, disease management, rotating specialty clinics, X-ray and lab services, in addition to expanded and improved physi-cal therapy services at Sports Plus Rehab Center. A pharmacy with walk-in and drive-thru ac-cess will also be offered.

Residents from around the region can look forward to convenient patient drop off and access from both Highway 45 by-pass and South College Street with ample parking. Con-struction is expected to begin in Spring 2015.

For more information, contact J. Neal Rager at 731-661-6340 or [email protected].

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West TN Medical News February 2015