Memphis is one of the largest centers of medical care in the South, with its health care providers serving a five-state region. It is fast becoming one of the nation’s premier centers for medical research.
Here, the practice of medicine is dominated by two large health-care systems, and it benefits from the presence of the state medical school, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The city is also home to the world-renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which boasts a Nobel Prize for Medicine and treats children from all over the world.
The primary competitors in Memphis health care are Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. and Methodist Healthcare, Inc. The two large systems operate hospitals, surgery centers, and health plans throughout the Mid-South.
Baptist and Methodist both claim to be unique, but they offer mostly the same services and also compete on quality and price. This competition has proven to be very beneficial to the community because it has meant a wide range of services and access throughout the city. By virtue of the dominance of the Baptist and Methodist systems, the other hospitals in Memphis work on the fringes, filling their own niches.
Overview
Saint Francis Hospital, with the support of Tenet Health Systems, recently created a larger health-care network that includes two area hospitals and several health centers, many of which are often listed as additional providers on health plans. The Saint Francis network also recently opened a new hospital in the suburb of Bartlett. Delta Medical Center specializes in behavioral health and is attractive to physicians who prefer a smaller, cozier atmosphere.
Baptist and Methodist have set aside their competitiveness when the community’s needs have been great. Both systems have agreed not to pursue vital services provided at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The Med), such as its trauma center equipped to treat the sickest and most seriously injured patients or its world-class burn center. Competing in these areas would undermine The Med, which would be bad for everyone. The two systems also cooperate in operating a helicopter air ambulance, and they co-own a surgery center. Both work with the Church Health Center, which provides health care to the city’s working poor.
Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center (no need to dust off your high-school French, because it’s pronounced luh-BON-ner) is the region’s primary provider of pediatric care. Courted by both health systems for several years, Le Bonheur merged with Methodist in 1995. Since then, Baptist has developed its own pediatric services that rival those offered at Le Bonheur.
University of Tennessee (UT) Health Science Center keeps health care in the city both friendly and first-rate. The med school operates in Memphis, even though the main university campus is in Knoxville.
Many of the region’s physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals are graduates of UT, and more than 800 Memphis physicians donate their time to teaching students about the real world of medicine beyond the school’s walls. Most of the faculty of UT also practice medicine in the community. Over 350 faculty members are part of UT Medical Group, Inc. and, as such, staff area hospitals, clinics, and surgery centers. The result is a dynamic, professionally charged environment where there is no barrier between academics and private practice.
The University of Tennessee is also linked to St. Jude, which was started by 1960s TV star Danny Thomas. Here, no child is turned away, regardless of the seriousness of the illness or the ability to pay. St. Jude is also unique in that almost all the scientists there have medical degrees as well as PhDs. Most of St. Jude’s scientists have dual appointments at UT, creating even more cross-pollination of medical creativity.
Like their counterparts elsewhere, the city’s health-care providers have been pressed by rising health-care costs, resulting in the establishment of outpatient surgery centers. By far the biggest pressure has been from TennCare, enacted by the state in 1994 to put Medicaid under the discipline of managed care. What followed was financial chaos for several years and the effective disappearance of mental health care for the poor. In 2005 TennCare disenrolled 200,000 people, eliminating $1.7 billion in health-care services for some of its neediest patients. Since then, the program’s eligibility requirements have become increasingly restrictive, leaving many of Tennessee’s citizens without adequate health care.