Medical Providers Gear Up for Influx of Retirees
Published Mar 03, 2008
Alexian Village offers a variety of housing and services for senior citizens.
With natural beauty, a good location, an affordable cost of living and a moderate climate, southeast Tennessee, north Georgia and southwest North Carolina are becoming popular destinations for retirees and baby boomers headed for retirement.
The anticipated influx has prompted preparation and planning on the part of hospitals, medical caregivers and state officials, as well as developers of senior-care facilities ranging from independent living to nursing homes.
As one example, Alexian Village of Tennessee east of downtown Chattanooga offers a full slate of activities and programs in a campus setting, plus assisted living and health-care services. Alexian Grove’s independent residential apartments are on 85 acres of what was once a farm.
On the north side of the city, Erlanger Health System’s North Campus offers a number of programs for older patients, says Jan Hamilton Powell, director of Erlanger public and community relations. The Seniors’ Program is an inpatient unit focusing on evaluating, diagnosing and treating mental health issues related to aging. The outpatient Behavioral Healthcare practice focuses on services associated with memory loss.
Powell adds that Erlanger recently established a Geriatrics Medicine Fellowship in partnership with the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga.
Also in Chattanooga, Memorial Hospital has $320 million worth of construction projects on the drawing board. “Like many other 50-year-old health-care institutions across the nation, we realized the need to reinvest in our facilities and technology to prepare Memorial to serve future generations and the growing aging population,” says Deb Moore, chief operating officer of Memorial Health Care System.
Sharing Information
Governmental efforts to meet the growing needs of senior citizens also are intensifying. Steve Witt, director of the Southeast Tennessee Development District Area Agency on Aging and Disability, says it shares information and refers people to counterpart organizations in Georgia and North Carolina.
In September 2008, the agency will partner with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for an informational conference called the Prism of Aging.
Story by Anne Gillem
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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