Rendering of the Smiths Grove location. Courtesy of T.J. Regional Health
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
T.J. Regional Health is expanding its healthcare reach with the groundbreaking of its new Smiths Grove location, which marks the healthcare system’s first Warren County clinic.
“We have multiple locations outside of Barren [County], but this is our first location in Warren County,” said Executive Vice President of Marketing, Planning and Development Stacey Biggs.
Biggs said the new one-story clinic will be approximately 16,000 square feet and be located where the Bryce Inn was, near Interstate 65. The Glasgow-based Alliance Corporation will manage the construction, Biggs said.
The facility will provide numerous services such as primary care needs, lab services, X-rays, ultrasounds, Naturopath — which focuses on holistic care, according to Biggs — various medical specialties and, in a first for T.J. Regional Health, a drive thru, which Biggs said is the thing she’s “probably most excited about.”
“Just imagine you have two little kids in car seats [that] need ears checked…they can stay in the car and get that basic medical care done,” Biggs said. “That’s the part I’m probably most excited about because, as far as I know, there’s nothing like this in the area.”
“Really all of this was born out of COVID when we had to change operationally the way we [did] things to keep people safe. We had drive thru COVID tests and then we had drive thru vaccine clinics, so we took that concept and expanded upon it. We said ‘If we can do those things [in a] drive thru…then why couldn’t we do a little bit more than that,'” she added.
The construction of the clinic has not begun yet, according to Biggs, however some of the necessary demolition work is underway. A 12-month construction time is hoped for, which would put the opening at the end of 2026, but that is best case scenario, Biggs said.
She said the hospital has owned property in Smiths Grove for a while, but decided now was the right time to expand.
“Right now, we’re very much in a growth mode…in looking at the numbers and the population projections for Smiths Grove over the next 10 years, and also its proximity to T.J. Samson, now seemed to be the right time; it just makes a lot of sense to get that up and running,” Biggs said.
Biggs said there is a sizable number of patients who travel to Glasgow for care. She also pointed out that this clinic will serve more people than those in the Smiths Grove area.
The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. at 592 South Main Street in Smiths Grove.
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