Fort Sanders Regional History

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, located in downtown Knoxville, traces its beginnings to May 1919, when a group of physicians received a charter from the State of Tennessee for Fort Sanders Hospital to be built on the site of the Civil War Battle of Fort Sanders. As construction proceeded, cannon balls and Indian relics were found on the building site. That same year, Fort Sanders School of Nursing accepted its first students. Fort Sanders Hospital opened its doors on Feb. 23, 1920.

In 1954, the hospital’s management was assumed by Knoxville Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church U.S., and the name was changed to Fort Sanders Presbyterian Hospital. The relationship remained until 1979 when an organizational restructuring changed the name of the institution to Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center which included the hospital, several clinical specialty programs, the School of Nursing and the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center (opened in 1978 and named in honor of actress Patricia Neal, a Knoxville native and survivor of three massive strokes).

During its “growing years,” Fort Sanders Regional became a comprehensive facility that offered the community some important “firsts” – in the 1920s, the first ambulance in the area, and in the 1940s, the first private hospital to have the new “wonder drug” penicillin available. In the 1970s, Fort Sanders Regional began the first hospice in Tennessee and obtained the first linear accelerator in the area for cancer treatment.

A History of Excellence

Fort Sanders Health System

In the 1980’s and 90’s, Fort Sanders Regional began to respond to changes in the healthcare environment by affiliating with other organizations to develop a coordinated system of care. It entered a lease agreement to operate Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center (now known as LeConte Medical Center) and its affiliated nursing home in 1981.

In 1984, hospital officials restructured the organization to create a parent company named Fort Sanders Alliance.

In 1986, employees and the community mounted a fundraising drive for the construction of the Thompson Cancer Survival Center, an outpatient cancer treatment center. In 1987, Fort Sanders West, (now Covenant Health West) an outpatient medical mall including physician’s offices, retail stores, a fitness center and child care facility, was begun.

Loudon County Hospital joined the system in 1989 and was rebuilt as Fort Loudoun Medical Center; and in 1990, Fort Sanders Regional acquired HCA Parkwest Medical Center, which changed from a for-profit organization to a not-for-profit affiliate, Parkwest Medical Center. In 1992, the health system began an affiliation process with Peninsula, a division of Parkwest Medical Center in the area of behavioral services, later assuming full ownership.

Covenant Health

In 1996, Fort Sanders Health System and MMC HealthCare System (headquartered in Oak Ridge) consolidated and formed a new organization, Covenant Health, with an emphasis on building healthy communities and delivering quality health care to the people of East Tennessee.

In January 1998, a new long-term acute care hospital was located at Fort Sanders Regional. Select Specialty, a 36 bed hospital, leases space within the hospital to care for patients with complex medical problems who require intensive care.

Today, Fort Sanders Regional is a 468-bed regional referral center for neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, oncology, cardiology, obstetrics and rehabilitation medicine. The hospital offers a variety of specialized services such as day surgery, electrodiagnostics, a sleep disorders center, a diabetes management center, prenatal education, and sports medicine.