Shelby County Commission to mayor's office: Give us a plan on funding Regional One

In one of its last acts before six new members are sworn in Wednesday, Shelby County Commissioners asked Mayor Lee Harris or someone on appointed by him to create a plan of action to fund the building of a new Regional One Health campus.

But, they took out the price tag for the county’s contribution, previously listed at $350 million, leaving it simply saying “an estimated amount.”

The plan of action, which commissioners have requested to be presented to them by February 1, is intended to fund the county’s portion of a new medical center over fiscal years 2024 through 2027, according to the resolution.

Harold Collins, chief administrative officer for Shelby County, said the mayor’s administration will bring a resolution in September to the commission. That resolution will be to create a committee to establish next steps regarding possible bond funding, legal matters regarding Regional One, how the state should be involved and how the University of Tennessee Health Science Center should be involved.

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“Our goals are your goals, to make Regional One the best regional hospital it can be in partnership with the state of Tennessee. So if we can have that in place, we believe we will then outline what the next steps would be,” Collins said. “All those entities have to be at the table so we can then formulate the process to kick off this plan.”

The $350 million previously discussed was just half of the $700 million needed for a three-phase replacement of the hospital’s buildings, according to 2017 estimates. The other half could theoretically come from philanthropic, state and federal partners, officials have said.

Doing nothing — according to those 2017 numbers — will ultimately cost $1.116 billion, including about $600 million in seismic retrofitting costs, as the buildings continue to age, Regional One officials told commissioners in June.

Three of the campus’ buildings are past their normal lifespan, while another will exceed that in 10 years. And, Regional One’s trauma center was built to serve 3,000-4,000 admissions, but is tracking about 7,000 this year, officials said in June.

It will be the next commission that will vote on whether to create a committee to look at a plan for funding Regional One. And, it will be its members who likely determine how, exactly, to fund the building of a new campus for the nonprofit organization, which leases the hospital and land from the county.

“I am really, really concerned. I’m not concerned about this body necessarily but there are so many priorities that come before commissioners year after year after year, and I pray that this is a priority tonight for us. I pray it’s a priority for the next body,” said Commissioner Mark Billingsley, whose term is ending this week.

Billingsley begged commissioners to support the efforts to fund Regional One and to “be as loud as we can with the next commission” to ask “to get this done.”

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.