Nashville General Hospital CEO Dr. Joseph Webb is looking to the future.
Last week, after months of deliberation, the The Hospital Authority Board of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County agreed to grant him a three-year contract with a salary of up to $631,046, which was up from his current salary of $436,000. Webb has served in the role since 2015.
Webb sat down with the Post to discuss what’s to come.
The Bordeaux project is having construction delays, though Webb hopes to see it open by the first of the year.
The Nashville Healthcare Center - Bordeaux, which offers primary care and specialty care similar to the organization’s Midtown clinic, was set to open in September 2022, and the Nashville Healthcare Diagnostic Center was set to open in October.
Nashville General opened a clinic outside of the footprint of its main campus for the first time in history with its Midtown campus in 2019. Webb was mum when asked what locations the organization may want to expand to next.
“It depends on if there are opportunities,” he said. “We're not going to say that the organization will never expand into another community. It just depends.”
MetroCenter is still on the mind for Nashville General’s new location.
In a May Hospital Authority Board meeting, Capital Project Solutions gave a presentation for a potential new facility at 720 Mainstream Drive, deeming Nashville General’s existing facility on Meharry’s campus beyond repair. The move took Meharry Medical College officials by surprise at the time.
“There is an area, MetroCenter, that we had identified as a desirable area,” Webb told the Post. “There were several others but that one seemed to be — from a proximity standpoint and size — most desirable. We don't have any kind of guarantees on that property at this time, it's just one that we're interested in.”
Currently, Webb said NGH is three months into a six-month planning period and looking at how much space and money would be needed as well as what services will be provided. The new hospital will be the same size of 150 beds, but the organization is looking to add behavioral health care and potentially post-acute care beds, Webb said.
"There's such a dearth of behavioral health facilities in the community,” he said. “We house that population now, until we can find a location for them, and it's always a tough task to get them placed.”
Despite past miscommunications, Meharry will be an integral part of construction choices as its teaching hospital. Webb said the new campus will include theaters for patients to watch operating rooms without penetrating the sterile environment.
Nashville General will be looking for an investor to help fund the new building.
Nashville General is requesting that the city donate a plot of land, though it’s not imperative to the plan. The hospital generates more than a quarter of a billion dollars per year, Webb said.
The city would be asked to serve as the guarantor, as it is currently for the Meharry location. For the new location, the asset would go to the city after the mortgage was paid off, rather than Meharry. Another difference with the new building is Nashville General is looking for an investor to get the building off the ground, whereas the city put down the money to renovate the current building in 1998, Webb said.
“Hospitals are very lucrative investments,” Webb said. “We don't feel based on the interest level that we would have any difficulty with identifying a financing group.”
He wants to clarify how the operating expenses work for the hospital as a whole. Webb pointed out that the city’s subsidy does not cover all of the cost of operations of Nashville General Hospital — it’s only 40 percent of operating expenses, and that covers the cost of services provided to the indigent population without the ability to pay.
“What many don't understand is that we can't rest on our laurels and just say, we're just going to care for the indigent population and sit back and wait on the city subsidy,” Webb said. “It's not the way it works. It's not a very good business plan. Our business plan is to maximize the population of patients that can pay, and certainly, serve all of those who come to us who cannot.”
He said he hasn’t experienced pushback on the new location. A survey of 492 Davidson County residents earlier this year showed that 48 percent of residents support the move and building of a new facility, with 21 percent opposing and 32 percent either neutral or don’t know enough to answer.
Webb said there is no downside to the move.
“I've not met with one, not a single individual who thought it was a bad idea or that it should not be done,” Webb said. “[I’ve had] 100 percent support for everyone that I've come in contact with as far as the presentations that we're making.”
The biggest roadblock to this project? Webb thinks it’s the idea of change.
“I think people are accustomed to Nashville General being something. ... This would represent a change,” Webb said. “The relationship with that entity might necessarily change, which makes people a little uncomfortable sometimes. But I think that the outcome and the benefit will far outweigh any risks or negatives. It's just sometimes change can be threatening.”
