JELLICO, Tenn. (WVLT) – Since the Jellico Regional Hospital opened in 2020 it’s been forced to close its doors several times.
In four years the hospital has been under the management of three different companies. Within the last year alone, two other companies have tried to manage the hospital, but at the last minute, the deal fell through. The Jellico Regional Hospital has been closed since March.
Mayor Sandy Terry said many of the issues in years past centered around finances, which has been a common theme as to why the hospital has had trouble staying open.
“A lot of time, you have patients in small communities that don’t have insurance,” said Terry.
On Wednesday, Terry announced that she officially signed off on Phoenix Rural Health to oversee the hospital.
Phoenix Rural Health is a group out of Jamestown led by CEO Mark Clapp, who was a doctor at Jamestown Regional Medical Center when it closed.
“My hospital closed in 2019, and I decided that if I couldn’t fix mine, I should go fix others,” said Clapp.
According to Clapp, a big way to get the hospital in Jellico up and running is by getting the facility classified as a rural emergency hospital, which would come with a significant amount of federal funding. Clapp feels confident that reclassification will take place.
Regardless, he’s prepared to run this hospital and keep the doors open for more than a few months at a time. With the next closest hospital more than 30 miles away in Corbin or Lafollette, he hopes the change will make a big impact.
“I will probably save more lives getting this hospital open than if I was an ER doctor during this entire time,” said Clapp.
Clapp said to cut down on costs they’ll initially focus on getting their emergency room up and running and providing X-rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds. He hopes that in a few years they can provide more in-patient care for people in Jellico.
With his own experience as a doctor in Jamestown and seeing firsthand what can happen to a community without a hospital, he’s determined to be the reason why Jellico will have access to this life-saving resource.
“Oh I think it’s a mission. There’s no question that what I want to do is pour my life into fixing rural hospitals. And there is no question about that,” said Clapp.
Clapp said that he hopes to have Jellico Regional Hospital back open in six to eight months. It would be the first time it’s opened its doors since March of 2024.
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