Why Regional One needs funding help to build new hospital: ‘There are real people behind these numbers’
Regional One Health’s chief fundraiser says there’s more need than ever for their healthcare services as the organization seeks major contributions towards a new hospital. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
For a few sobering minutes, the chief fundraiser for Regional One Health considered all of the potential disaster scenarios that her institution backstops: giant corporations that operate chemical plants, power plants, planes and trains for hundreds of miles around Memphis rely on the health care system to save their workers if something goes wrong.
“I think if you look at all the projects that are supposed to come online in West Tennessee over the next several years, one of the first things a lot of those places do is build a helipad,” Tammie Ritchey, the Regional One Health Foundation’s Chief Development Officer, said in an interview on Monday, Oct. 26.
The helicopters that fly onto Westmoreland Avenue in the Memphis Medical District may seem odd for a hospital system’s head fundraising officer to talk about, but it’s Ritchey’s job to know whom her hospital is saving, especially now, when Regional One faces a huge funding deficit for the $1 billion hospital it wants to build on Union Avenue.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on the intersection of government, public policy, influence and how public dollars are spent.
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