CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – With three hospital groups jockeying for position to build new facilities here, the Aspire Foundation hosted top leaders from all three for a Clarksville Healthcare Forum on Tuesday, giving each one 15 minutes to make their pitch to business and community leaders.

“Our community is growing fast, but we don’t have the same hospital capabilities and coverage that we see in other counties,” said Buck Dellinger, CEO of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic Development Council, who facilitated the meeting. Dellinger said County Mayor Wes Golden recently summed it well: “This might be the biggest thing that’s happened in Montgomery County in 50 years.”

On May 15, Ascension Saint Thomas announced their plan for a full-service hospital and ER. Two weeks later, TriStar Health said it is also seeking approval for a Clarksville hospital. In the wake of those announcements, Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville said they will ask to change the location for their planned satellite hospital from north Clarksville to a spot next to the current satellite ER in Sango.

Tennova: ‘Our community hospital’

Plans for the Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville satellite hospital at Exit 11 of Interstate 24. (Tennova, contributed)
Plans for the Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville satellite hospital at Exit 11 of Interstate 24. (Tennova, contributed)

Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville CEO Drew Emery outlined by the numbers the ways in which the hospital has served the community over the years.

“We really are Clarksville’s hometown hospital,” Emery said. “We have been and will continue to be a great neighbor, a good community citizen and a partner. We hope our community will continue to support our community hospital.”

He said Tennova has had a $1 billion economic impact over the last five years, including payroll, capital investment and taxes as a for-profit hospital.

Emery pointed out as a positive that about 50% of women in Montgomery County choose to have their babies at Tennova – a statistic that the other hospital leaders have used as key argument for why Clarksville needs another hospital. However, Emery said that adding the local births at Tennova minority owner Vanderbilt University Medical Center, that percentage rises to 80%.

He touted Tennova’s recent advances with robotic technology, its recent designation as a Primary Stroke Center, and the addition of neurosurgery services.

Emery also outlined three reasons why new hospitals aren’t needed in Clarksville:

  • The proposed hospitals are much smaller than Tennova, which is already meeting the community’s needs.
  • The new hospitals will transfer their high-need patients to their larger hospitals in Nashville.
  • There’s a limited number of health care workers in Clarksville, and it’s already challenging to find enough of them for Tennova.

TriStar: ‘A lot like coming home’

TriStar President Mitch Edgeworth speaks at the Aspire Clarksville Healthcare Forum on June 17, 2025. (Chris Smith)

In contrast to Tennova’s stated struggles with recruiting healthcare workers in Clarksville, TriStar President Mitch Edgeworth said they already have 500 employees in Montgomery County who commute to other Tristar facilities. He said they would have no difficulty shifting some of these 500 to a new local hospital, calling it “a lot like coming home.”

“We already have enough colleagues who reside here and call Clarksville home to more than staff the hospital here that we’re designing to build,” he said. “These are your neighbors … and we would love for that group of employees … to be home for dinner with their families and be involved in their communities instead of being on the road.”

Edgeworth emphasized TriStar’s “longstanding collaboration” with Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, saying the TriStar Level 1 trauma center and burn unit, for example, has been a critical asset to support Fort Campbell.

And he said their plan may be to start small, but Clarksville’s hospital should become a major facility. “We don’t believe Clarksville is a spoke. We believe you’re a hub,” Edgeworth said. “If you look at the broader community that exists in and around Clarksville-Montgomery County to the adjacent counties that you serve already … we do envision being able to service folks even across the state line.”

“We believe that care is local, and too much of your care is migrating down the street (to Nashville).”

He said anyone who has questions about TriStar’s reputation should call friends or relatives who live near any TriStar hospital, and they will speak to their quality and community involvement. “When we are part of your community, we get involved,” Edgeworth said.

Ascension Saint Thomas: ‘Generational opportunity’

Ascension Saint Thomas President and CEO Fahad Tahir speaks at the Aspire Clarksville Healthcare Forum on June 17, 2025. (Chris Smith)

For Ascension Saint Thomas, the push to open a hospital is a “generational opportunity” to satisfy the choices that residents are already making, said CEO Fahad Tahir.

“We consistently hear patients are burdened by the travel to get the care they need,” he said. “We want people to be able to choose. They have a choice of where they get care from. If that choice also comes with a burden of having to travel, an hour or hour and a half to Nashville, that’s a burden of choice that people shouldn’t have to make.”

Tahir said Ascension Saint Thomas, a faith-based nonprofit hospital, operates on principles of listening and accountability. Before building anything, they plan to conduct a community health needs assessment. Already for Clarksville, that has yielded important suggestions on matters ranging from vehicle ingress/egress to needed medical specialties. They plan to hold more listening sessions and will continue to gather input before finalizing their plans.

He said that once the hospital is built, they will follow their standard three-year cycle of needs assessments to ensure there’s accountability for meeting those needs. He said meeting those needs generates more revenue, which is then reinvested back into the nonprofit hospital.

“We see this as a generational opportunity to reframe how healthcare is a core part of the infrastructure of the success of Clarksville-Montgomery County,” Tahir said. Clarksville has had a lot of success, he said, and it can be more successful “with a stronger, more vibrant, more integrated health infrastructure that keeps up with the level and capacity of growth that you generate as a business community.”

Tahir framed the Ascension Saint Thomas effort as a calling. “The call for us to come to Clarksville-Montgomery County is now,” Tahir said. “This is Clarksville’s opportunity. We just want you to say yes to more access.”

How to get involved

The CON hearing will be Wednesday, July 23, at 9 a.m. at 425 N. Representative John Lewis Way, Senate Hearing Room I, Cordell Hull State Legislative Building, Nashville. The meeting is open to the public.

During the forum, all community leaders were encouraged to email letters to the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission at HSDA.Staff@tn.gov by July 7.

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