Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health have served our region with high-quality, advanced health care for more than 130 years combined. Their offerings include neonatal intensive care, cancer centers, robotic surgery, heart centers and much more.
On April 15, 2024, the HCA TriStar division submitted a certificate of need (CON) to build a second hospital in Maury County in the town of Spring Hill.
The Coalition for Responsible Health Care was created to serve as a collective voice for local health care providers and community members who understand that health care development must take place in a responsible manner or it will only serve to increase costs for our patients, disrupt the continuum of care and exacerbate the nationwide shortage of providers, resulting in physician- and nurse-to-patient ratios that are detrimental to clinical quality and patient safety.
Adding a new, for-profit hospital to the region will not result in more specialty care being provided. Instead, The Coalition for Responsible Health Care believes it will:
Our local medical centers are home to hundreds of specialists and sub-specialists who provide services the proposed new hospital would not, including:
Spring Hill is well served by two not-for-profit health systems, both of which offer many specialties and have ample capacity to treat patients.
Depending upon one’s location in Spring Hill, either Maury Regional Health or Williamson Health is about 14-17 miles away.
To claim another hospital is needed to handle inpatient care is simply incorrect. Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health offer acute inpatient services and are able to serve the area’s capacity needs.
HCA TriStar often chooses to needlessly transfer patients 55 minutes away to their hospital in Nashville when Maury Regional and Williamson have the ability and capacity to care for these patients closer to home.
HCA TriStar would need to hire hundreds of nurses and dozens of physicians to staff this hospital, creating an even greater shortage of available caregivers during a nationwide shortage of these professionals, resulting in physician- and nurse-to-patient ratios that would be detrimental to clinical quality and patient safety throughout the region.
To staff a new hospital, HCA TriStar would likely attempt to lure providers from existing health facilities, creating a disruption in covered providers and accessibility for the population throughout the region.
HCA TriStar is by far the most expensive provider of medical care in the region. As a for-profit entity, HCA is incentivized for continual growth and increased profits. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, HCA revenues totaled over $17 billion.
If this proposed hospital were to be built, patients would pay more for medical services than they would at either Maury Regional Health or Williamson Health, financially benefitting Wall Street investors but offering no new health services to the local community. Local not-for-profit hospitals reinvest their margins in the communities that they serve.
In their CON application HCA TriStar made numerous claims about why a new hospital was needed. The Coalition for Responsible Health Care believes these claims are false and misleading.
There is only one existing hospital in the three-zip code service area.
Two medical centers are located within 14-17 miles of Spring Hill, TN.
The two local medical centers provide a higher level of care to the Spring Hill community than the hospital proposed by HCA TriStar.
Patients will travel to the hospital that has the specialty care they need and trust. Patients, other than for emergency care, do not necessarily stay within certain zip codes to seek advanced care.
In four years, Maury Regional Health’s occupancy rate will exceed 80 percent.
Maury Regional Health has ample inpatient capacity and offers far more specialties than the proposed hospital. In addition, Maury Regional Health is currently undergoing a $100+ million expansion plan to meet the needs of future growth in our community.
The HCA TriStar ER receives most of its visits from patients living in the surrounding three-zip codes. Therefore, a new hospital is needed.
It is not unusual for any Urgent Care or ER to receive most of its visits from patients living in the surrounding area.
The HCA TriStar ER receives fewer visits from the three zip codes than Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health.
Less than 20% of patients who come to an ER will require hospitalization, and many of those will still need to be transferred to another hospital to receive specialized inpatient care.
There is no acute care hospital in the town of Spring Hill, therefore one is needed.
There are two medical centers within 14-17 miles of Spring Hill that already provide acute care – and more specialized care – than the proposed Spring Hill hospital could provide.
Patients will travel to the hospital that has the specialty care they need and trust.
A new hospital in Spring Hill will reduce the time it takes for a resident to receive care.
Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health provide those needed services in the local community and are half the distance from Spring Hill as HCA TriStar Centennial Hospital.
Patients who need a higher level of care services, such as stroke care or specialized surgery, would experience delays in care because the proposed hospital would not have the specialists to care for them. They would likely be transported to the HCA TriStar Centennial Hospital, located 37 miles away in Nashville.
The free-standing TriStar Emergency Department is already available to stabilize life-threatening and emergent conditions. The time it takes to receive care will change very little with a limited-specialty hospital on the TriStar campus and other larger specialty medical centers nearby.
A new hospital is needed for women’s care, including OB/GYN and childbirth services.
Women’s services are already provided in the community.
Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health both offer robust childbirth and gynecological care.
The free-standing TriStar Emergency Department is already available to stabilize life-threatening and emergent conditions. The time it takes to receive care will change very little with a limited-specialty hospital on the TriStar campus and other larger specialty medical centers nearby.
Maury Regional Health and Williamson Health both offer established Level II NICUs with board-certified neonatologists and board-certified neonatal nurse practitioners affiliated with Monroe Carrel Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
A new hospital will address the inpatient acute care needs of the service area population.
Both local medical centers operate with ample capacity for inpatient acute care. There is no need for additional inpatient beds.
If you would like the Coalition for Responsible Health Care to submit a letter on your behalf, you may fill out this form.
To submit a letter yourself, you may download our template or write your own and mail it.
Tennessee Health Facilities Commission
c/o Certificate of Need
502 Deaderick Street, Andrew Jackson Building, 9th Floor
Nashville, TN 37243
