(NASHVILLE) Murfreesboro will soon have a facility that does open heart surgery. On Wednesday morning (6/23/2021), the Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency today granted Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford approval of its Certificate of Need (CON) application to add adult open heart surgery to its well-established cardiac program.
The application was heavily supported by the local community as well as by civic and business organizations, including physician groups, MTSU, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Maury Regional Medical Center, Unity Medical Center and local and state government officials.
“Now that we have approval to bring open heart surgery to Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford, we will fill a significant gap of advanced heart care that exists between Nashville and Chattanooga,” said Evelio Rodriguez, M.D., chief of cardiac surgery, Ascension Saint Thomas Heart. “We have a strong history of bringing advanced heart care to the communities we serve and look forward to our next steps.”
“We are grateful to the members of the HSDA for their approval of our application,” said Gordon Ferguson, president and CEO, Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford. “We look forward to starting the physician recruitment phase of this program later this year to bring this much needed program to our service area as soon as all components are in place.”
Ascension Saint Thomas will invest more than $5.6 million in its Rutherford hospital to establish the open heart surgery program. According to Dr. Rodriguez, existing Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital West cardiac surgery clinical pathways and protocols will be used to develop a high-quality program at Rutherford.
“This is a great day for our Ministry,” said Tim Adams, president and CEO, Ascension Saint Thomas and Ministry Market Executive, Ascension Tennessee. “We are committed to providing outstanding care to our patients and identifying services that our community needs. The open heart surgery program at Rutherford will be established, operated and maintained at the same levels of quality as shown at our nationally recognized heart program at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital West in Nashville.”
Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford is currently accredited with the Joint Commission and will continue to comply with the standards of the American College of Cardiology, the American Hospital Association and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
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About Ascension Saint Thomas
In Tennessee, Ascension Saint Thomas operates ten hospital campuses in addition to a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures, medical practices, clinics and rehabilitation facilities that cover a 68-county area and employ more than 10,000 associates. Across the state, Ascension Saint Thomas provided more than $150 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2020. Serving Tennessee for 22 years, Ascension is a faith-based health care organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable.
About Ascension
Ascension is a faith-based health care organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As the largest nonprofit and Catholic health system in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2020, Ascension provided $2.4 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Ascension includes more than 160,000 associates and 40,000 aligned providers. The national health system operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 145 hospitals and more than 40 senior living facilities – in 19 states and the District of Columbia, while providing a variety of services including clinical and network services, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, facilities management, risk management, and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.
