New emergency room to open in Fentress County
University of Tennessee Medical Center is opening a standalone emergency room in Jamestown.
JAMESTOWN, Tenn. (WVLT) - The University of Tennessee Medical Center will begin accepting patients at its new standalone emergency department in Jamestown on July 11.
Fentress County has not had a hospital or emergency room since Jamestown Regional Medical Center closed in 2019. Residents have had to drive over an hour for emergency medical care since.
“We just didn’t have that much hope for care,” said resident Wanda Hatfield.
Since 2019, medical staff in Fentress County have tried to fill the gap left by the absence of a hospital. “It’s been so tough. Our ambulance services have been worked to death,” said County Executive Jimmy Johnson.
The new emergency room is not a hospital, but it will be able to stabilize patients before transporting them to a hospital if needed.
“We’re not able to replace it with a hospital, but what we’ve been able to do is provide both emergency services and primary care services, so people don’t have to travel 45 miles or more to get access,” said Dr. James Shamiyeh, Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations of UTMC.
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