Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health has completed a nearly $8 million expansion of the clinical command center it credits with cutting bed assignment times 74%, the system said Aug. 28.
The center, which opened in 2022, is the coordination hub for the 20-hospital system spanning 29 counties across Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina. From one location, staff manage patient transfers, virtual care, real-time bed availability and emergency operations across the Appalachian region.
The grant-funded expansion drew $4.8 million from Tennessee’s Department of Healthcare Resiliency Program and a $3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development distance learning and telemedicine grant, with added support from the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program and Ballad Health.
The hub also houses Tennessee’s Region 1 Regional Medical Communications Center, one of seven state-designated centers that coordinate emergency response.
In fiscal 2026, the center fielded more than 750,000 calls and logged more than 71,000 telehealth visits — a 63% increase since fiscal 2023, according to Ballad Health. Since fiscal 2022, it has coordinated more than 56,000 patient transfers, saving patients a combined $4 million in transportation costs.
The system also credited the hub with preventing more than 6,000 unnecessary transfers and more than 5,000 unnecessary hospitalizations.
“From a clinical care perspective, every minute matters,” said Clay Runnels, MD, Ballad’s chief physician executive.
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