Supporters believe it would create the city's first academic medical center. The change would leave the Baptist system with 15 hospitals in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, including one in nearby Southaven. Methodist's system features 13 hospitals in the Memphis area and West Tennessee. It has plans to build an ambulatory surgery center in Olive Branch. In 1995, Methodist acquired Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center.
Plans call for enhanced heart and pediatric services.
Officials predict it will be completed in winter 2001. The Baptist and Methodist systems also operate large health insurance plans that include an extensive network of physicians. Other general hospitals include Memphis Veterans Medical Center in the medical center area, Saint Francis Hospital in East Memphis and Delta Medical Center near Memphis International Airport. Saint Francis, which also operates a nursing home, won state permission in 1998 to build a 90-bed Bartlett hospital. Construction on what would be Bartlett's first hospital was delayed while the facility was redesigned.