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"Professionally I've had a successful history working with Advanced ICU Care and integrating high-acuity telemedicine into a hospital's workstream," said Daniel Lewis, MD, chief medical officer of Greeneville Community Hospital East.
"As Ballad Health came together last year, we decided it was important to us to include Advanced ICU Care tele-ICU care services in our consolidated Greeneville facility. Based on my positive experience, I am confident that our hospital's adoption of tele-ICU will result in improved clinical outcomes in addition to more efficient ICU bed utilization," Lewis said.
Earlier this year, Ballad Health consolidated Laughlin Memorial Hospital and Takoma Regional Hospital into Greeneville Community Hospital East. Previously, the acute care hospitals were owned by separate health systems – Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System, TV news station WJHL reported.
“Once the ICU is transitioned to the Greeneville Community Hospital East Campus, Ballad plans to open a Progressive Care Unit at the same campus- a service not currently provided in the community, but which studies show benefits patient healing through a gradual, stepped-down level of care,” Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine wrote in a letter to the state of Tennessee.
Ballad Health is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving 29 counties of Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Northwestern North Carolina, and Southeastern Kentucky. The system was created in 2018, and it has committed investments totaling $308 million over 10 years to preserve access, expand health research and graduate medical education, and address the region's pressing health issues.
The health system operates 21 hospitals in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, including a children's hospital, several community hospitals, three critical access hospitals, a behavioral health hospital, an addiction treatment facility, long-term care facilities, home care and hospice services, retail pharmacies, outpatient services, and a medical management corporation.
