LeConte Medical Center helping transform Sevier Co. healthcare

LeConte Medical Center helping transform Sevier Co. healthcare

By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Anchor/Reporter

SEVIERVILLE (WATE) -- Construction of the state of the art LeConte Medical Center campus, including a cancer center, women's center and professional building are all well underway in Sevier County.

Those behind the project say it will change lives in the large rural county that also serves as a major tourist destination.

"Why it's going to help all of us. We won't have to drive to Knoxville to see a doctor," says Senior Project Superintendent Wayne Spence.

He has a vested interest. Spence also lives in Sevier County and the new medical campus will serve him, his family and his friends.

"I can't express it in words what it will mean for this county because I was born and raised here and we've needed this facility for years," Spence says.

He recently took 6 News on a tour of what will be the 200,000 square foot hospital.

The hospital will boast private patient rooms, state of the art imaging equipment and increased security monitoring systems that includes an anti-abduction system for infants.

LeConte Medical Center will replace the current hospital, which is more than four decades old and too small for the volume of patients it now sees.

One of the biggest improvements will be the new emergency room.

"The Sevierville hospital here is overrun by tourists coming in and out of their emergency department so a key element for this new design was an enlarged emergency department," explains Senior Project Manager Marty Gibbs.

It's only a shell right now, but it will be more than triple the size of the ER it's replacing.

The campus will also be home to the Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services. A long corridor  with windows will attach the building to the hospital so patients can be transferred without going outside.

The same is also true for the Robert F. Thomas Professional Building. It's the furthest along in construction and it's already being used as a tool to recruit new doctors.

Plus, the Thompson Cancer Survival Center is a first of it's kind for Sevier County.

"The new design and the new hospital is going to be patient and visitor friendly with a much more warming atmosphere and design concepts that will bring Sevier County health care up to date," Gibbs says. 

The medical campus will serve Sevierville, Seymour, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.