There are numerous factors which affect quality of life and thus home values in a community and one of those is the availability of quality health care.
Consider for a moment, you are a retiree who is evaluating different areas to spend your “golden years”, would available health care options be important to you? What if you are a principal in a company, evaluating different locations to open a branch, would a breath of health care options be a part of your vetting process? The answer to both of these would be, YES and therefore this is an important factor to keep in mind as we look at our overall community appeal.
The Greater Chattanooga Area’s health care needs are primarily served by 3 major health care entities: CHI Memorial, Parkridge Health System and Erlanger Health System. In an effort to educate Realtor members on the breath of services being offered, the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors (GCAR) invited executives from Erlanger to a morning meeting on June 7th at its Amnicola office.
Jed Mescon, Vice President of Public Relations, Marketing and Development kicked off the meeting with a number of little known facts about the system. He advised the group that Erlanger represents the 7th largest public health system in the nation and yet, despite its size, he continued that it also represents the #1 underfunded system in the nation. Erlanger will provide $100 million in unreimbursed care this year, “No one is turned away at Erlanger” Mescon commented and recent studies revealed that Erlanger’s emergency room is the 7th busiest in the nation.
Next up was Steven Wagner, Executive Director of Development. Wagner discussed a number of current and planned investments the system is making in the fields of heart and lung care. He highlighted physician recruitment, including Dr. Larry Shears who is ranked #2 in the world in robotic Cardiothoracic Surgery procedures. Erlanger is now ranked as the #2 Stroke Center in the US continued Wagner, with a door to tPA time of just 19 minutes, a critical measure in stroke care.
The final focus of the meeting was from Bruce Komiske, Vice President, New Hospital Design and Construction. Komiske presented the thought process and unique features of the new Children’s hospital, which had just broken ground the day before. He explained that 32 of the needed 40 million dollars had been raised for first phase of the hospital, so construction was beginning. The new facility will provide state of the art care in modern day surroundings vs. the decades old building they are currently functioning in. He concluded that this represents the first of several major facility investments on the campus and presented drawings of what the community could expect in coming years.
Realtor members left with these and many more talking points about the availability of health care in the region, so they can properly “sell” the advantages of relocating to our community. Erlanger is still accepting donations for the Children’s Hospital at www.believe.build