Community leaders turned out Thursday, Sept. 28, to toast the imminent opening of east Alabama’s newest healthcare facility — and the partnership that made it possible.
The new hospital is the product of a partnership between the Randolph County community, who voted in 2015 to approve a 1 percent special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST), and Carrollton, Ga.-based Tanner Health System, which agreed to equip and operate the facility.
“Tanner has a track record in helping communities like ours, and we’re going to capitalize on their experience,” said Bill Caypless, PA-C, co-chair of the Tanner Medical Center Alabama Board of Directors, the governing body for the new hospital.
Others echoed his sentiments.
“Tanner had the vision, they had the leadership, and they had the organizational strength to accomplish this,” said Jo Kicker, also a member of the Tanner Medical Center Alabama Board of Directors.
Following the remarks and ribbon cutting, dignitaries were invited to tour the new, 50,000-square-foot hospital and see the new amenities that include new diagnostic imaging technology, a new eight-bed emergency department, new inpatient rooms and more. Staff from Tanner and Wedowee Hospital staff who will be moving to the new hospital when it opens for patients led the tours and helped showcase the amenities. Almost 400 people attended the invitation-only event.
Loy Howard, president and CEO of Tanner, reaffirmed the health system’s commitment to the east Alabama community.
“Tanner entered this not for one year, not for three years, not for five years — this is a long-term partnership,” he said. Howard reiterated that Tanner would continue to work to define its success by improving access to care, improving healthcare quality and improving the health of the residents in the communities that Tanner serves.
“Part of building a great community — along with great education and great community spirit — is having great health care,” said Howard. “The people of Randolph County recognize this.”
State Senator Gerald Dial (R-Lineville) called attention to the vital role that health care plays in helping to attract new opportunities to a community.
“You don’t get jobs — you don’t get the kind of economic development that you want — without health care,” said Dial. “When an industry is looking to locate jobs in your community, the first thing they look for is to see if you have the health care that can help take care of their workers.”
State Representative Bob Fincher (R-Woodland), thanked Tanner for its willingness to work with Randolph County residents to improve access to care in the region.
“I’m grateful for your decision to cross the border and work with the people of Randolph County,” said Fincher.
Fincher also acknowledged the county’s willingness to impose a tax upon itself to build the hospital, calling it “a rare expression of faith and a willingness to invest in the future,” and celebrated the volunteers who took the campaign for a new hospital to the streets to drum up support.
Daniel Jackson, who chairs the Tanner Medical Center Inc. Board of Directors and co-chairs the Tanner Medical Center Alabama Board of Directors, called the hospital “a site for sore eyes for all the people who come through these doors needing care.”
“Our sentiments here were, ‘we want it, we need it, we can do it,’ and today, we’ve done it,” Jackson said.
The Rev. David Little of the First Baptist Church of Wedowee led the invocation, praying for God to watch over the staff and caregivers who will work in the new hospital, giving them the insight and creativity to save lives.
The public will get to tour Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama themselves on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during an open house event. The hospital is located at 1032 South Main Street in Wedowee. More information is available online at www.tanner.org/eastalabama.