In 1997, Van Turner, then a young college student, was traveling back to Atlanta’s Morehouse College when he experienced a horrific car wreck in North Mississippi. 

He was transported by ambulance to Shelby County’s acute care hospital, today known as Regional One Health. At the time, the hospital at 877 Jefferson Ave. was called The Regional Medical Center at Memphis — more popularly known as The Med. 

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There, Turner spent three days in intensive care, recovering from a collapsed lung, a severed spleen and broken ribs. 

“I was in pretty bad shape,” he said. “I credit the fine care that I received at Regional One for bringing me back from that horrible experience. That’s my own personal story about Regional One and why I think it’s such a needed institution in our community, and we need to do everything that we can to support it.”

Turner was elected to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. Since he’s serving his second consecutive term on the commission, Turner is prevented from seeking a third term under term-limit provisions of the county charter. 

But before his term ends, Turner, the commission’s hospital and health committee chairman, hopes to see a $750 million capital initiative take shape to build a new county hospital.

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“I think the improvements for Regional One are long overdue, and that’s something that’s been on our radar since we got on the commission,” he said. “I think it’s past time to try and improve the buildings there and to make sure that they match the world-class care they give — especially in the areas of trauma and the other emergency services that they provide — not only in Tennessee but also to the Mid-South.”

The project would entail replacing the current aging hospital in the heart of the Memphis Medical District with a contemporary facility. 

“If we were to rebuild what we have, the standards out there are different from what they were when these facilities were originally built,” said Dr. Reginald Coopwood, president and CEO of Regional One Health. “There’s a need to have a significant upgrade to make all of the places where we provide care consistent with current code for hospitals.”

The Chandler Building, where patients access services such as outpatient rehabilitation and interventional radiology, was built nearly 60 years ago. The Rout Building Women’s Hospital, with patient rooms, labor and delivery and a newborn center, is 65 years old. 

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And the hospital’s power plant is 80 years old. 

“It’s not the power plant you want supplying energy for any hospital,” Coopwood said. “These are needed replacements. These need to be replaced in order for us to continue into the future to deliver the high-quality, complex care that we do. We’re currently providing high-quality health care in an infrastructure that is old, that has a considerable cost of ongoing maintenance that, over 20 years, would exceed the cost to replace it.” 

Coopwood projects that everything but Turner Tower, which houses the Firefighters Burn Center, Surgery Center, Extended Care Hospital, Wound Care and the Rehabilitation Hospital, would be torn down. 

The building replacements would happen in phases. 

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“It really would be on this footprint,” Coopwood said. “Since we don’t have a green space to put a hospital on, there will be some tearing down and building up. It’s a longer process, but it’s important for Regional One Health to stay here in the Medical District, juxtaposed to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.”

Turner hopes private, state and federal matches for county funding can be found before the current commission terms out in August. At least six of the current 13 Shelby County commissioners will leave the commission. 

“It’s my intent to put forth hopefully a plan to issue commercial paper or a bond in order to get those funds to be allocated towards the effort to improve the facilities at Regional One,” he said. “It’s my intent to really pass this on to the new commission that’s coming into place on September 1 so that they can carry forth this important initiative.” 

Coopwood said Regional One providers remain focused on delivering high-quality care in the buildings that need replacing.

“I think the care that we deliver — the amount of work that we do on behalf of this region, and trauma and burn and high-risk OB — our team of physicians deserves to be in a facility that’s commensurate with what standard of care is across this country.”