University Medical Center has been growing since its beginning. In 1975 a group of physicians, under the guidance of Dr. Robert Carver Bone, and local businessmen applied for a Certificate of Need for a 65 bed hospital. This group’s close association with Cumberland University in Lebanon was the reason for choosing the name University Medical Center.
In November 1977 ground for the new facility was broken with a mule and plow. On hand for that event was U.S. Representative Al Gore, Jr. Representative Gore returned on April 1, 1979, to cut the ribbon and speak at the hospital’s opening. The first patient was admitted on April 2, 1979. An addition to the hospital was added in 1980. Originally this expansion housed a nursing home but after a few years was converted to hospital use, increasing the hospital’s bed capacity to 125.
In 1982, the original group of investors sold the hospital to American Healthcorp, and in 1985 it was again sold to National Medical Enterprises. On June 1, 1992, National Medical Enterprises purchased Lebanon’s other hospital, Humana McFarland Hospital, and the process was begun to consolidate the healthcare delivery system for Wilson County.
McFarland Hospital was established by Dr. Sam W. McFarland at the intersection of East Spring Street and Park Avenue in Lebanon in 1917. The building had 10 patient rooms, an operating room, a kitchen and a dining room. McFarland’s nephew, Dr. Sam B. McFarland, assumed administrative and medical responsibilities for the hospital in 1931. The hospital underwent a number of expansions and renovations over the next several years and by the mid-1960’s had become a 74-room hospital with private rooms, a delivery room, a nursery, a laboratory, an x-ray department and an emergency room.
After the amalgamation of the UMC and McFarland in 1992, the two facilities consolidated service lines to provide a comprehensive, two-campus healthcare delivery system. The McFarland campus of UMC houses the hospital’s behavioral health and inpatient rehabilitation departments, the wound care center, the business office and several physicians’ offices. The main campus of UMC houses acute care, a state-of-the-art emergency department, two surgical areas with a total of eight operating suites, cardiac cath lab and outpatient center.
Ground was broken in November 2007 on the construction of a four story patient tower. When completed in 2009, University Medical Center will offer all private patient rooms.
University Medical Center is currently owned by Health Management Associates with corporate offices located in Naples, Florida.