Kindred Healthcare, Tennova Healthcare and the University of Tennessee Medical Center Announce State Approval for Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee

Kindred Healthcare, LLC (“Kindred”), Tennova Healthcare, and the University of Tennessee Medical Center (“UTMC”) today announced the Health Services and Development Agency of the State of Tennessee has granted Certificate of Need approval for a 57-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. The hospital, Knoxville Rehabilitation Hospital, is the result of a partnership among Kindred, Tennova and UTMC.

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The project will relocate 57 licensed inpatient rehabilitation beds from other Tennova hospitals to the new Knoxville Rehabilitation Hospital. The hospital will be a newly constructed facility and is expected to open in 2021, subject to necessary regulatory and other approvals.

Knoxville Rehabilitation Hospital will provide care for patients across an 11-county region with impairments resulting from a traumatic medical situation, such as stroke, serious spinal cord and brain injury, neurologic illness, major multiple trauma, and orthopedic conditions with complex or profound impairments. Although the majority of patients are expected to be seniors, Knoxville Rehabilitation Hospital will be equipped to also treat younger patients recovering from traumatic incidents.

The two-story, 68,000-square-foot freestanding hospital will feature all private rooms, with designated wings on the second floor of the building for stroke and traumatic brain injury patients. The main therapy suite will be located on the first floor, complete with a therapy gym, rooms for multiple therapy protocols, private therapy rooms, a cooking therapy room, and an “Activities of Daily Living” therapy suite. Additional therapy rooms will be located on the second floor for convenient access to therapy for the entire patient population.

“Kindred’s experience operating inpatient rehabilitation hospitals will complement the highly regarded patient care services that Tennova and UTMC currently provide, resulting in a collaboration that will improve health outcomes, inpatient rehabilitation access and clinical integration,” said Jason Zachariah, president of Kindred Rehabilitation Services, a division of Kindred Healthcare. “We are pleased to work with two premier healthcare providers in the East Tennessee Region to offer quality, post-acute care resources for the benefit of the community.”

“This will truly be a joint effort, relying equally on the expertise and talent of our three organizations,” said Joe Landsman, president and chief executive officer of UTMC. “We’re very excited to be working together with other reputable healthcare partners in our region—and at the national level—to do what’s best for our community’s healthcare needs.”

“By virtue of our strategic alliance and joint venture arrangement, this project will promote easy access, cost-effectiveness, and specialized treatment for appropriate patients as well as the reduction of unnecessary duplication of healthcare services,” said Tony Benton, chief executive officer of Tennova Healthcare – East Tennessee Market.

About Kindred Healthcare

Kindred Healthcare, LLC is a healthcare services company based in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $3.3 billion(1). At March 31, 2019, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 34,400 employees providing healthcare services in 1,782 locations in 46 states, including 73 long-term acute care hospitals (72 as of June 26, 2019), 22 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 11 sub-acute units, 97 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based) and contract rehabilitation service businesses which served 1,579 non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for nine years, Kindred’s mission is to help our patients reach their highest potential for health and healing with intensive medical and rehabilitative care through a compassionate patient experience. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Tennova Healthcare

Tennova Healthcare includes 10 hospitals and more than 115 physician clinics in the state of Tennessee. The health network has more than 7,000 employees, 2,800 physicians on the combined medical staffs, with nearly 60,000 admissions and 373,000 emergency department visits each year. Learn more at www.Tennova.com.

About The University of Tennessee Medical Center

The mission of The University of Tennessee Medical Center, the region’s only hospital to achieve status as a Magnet® recognized organization, is to serve through healing, education and discovery. UT Medical Center, a 669-bed, not-for-profit academic medical center, serves as a referral center for Eastern Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky and Western North Carolina. The medical center, the region’s only Level I Trauma Center, is one of the largest employers in Knoxville. For more information, visit online at www.utmedicalcenter.org.

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