HCA Healthcare, Meharry Medical College Partner to Advance Care

November 9, 2017

Dear Friends:

We are writing to share exciting and historic news for Meharry Medical College and the community we serve. Today, our college announced that it has entered a partnership with HCA Healthcare in which our students will begin to train at TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center. Under a Memorandum of Agreement, students enrolled in the School of Medicine will receive their instruction at HCA’s Southern Hills location beginning in the summer of 2018. We could not be more pleased by this development and what it means for our faculty, students and the greater community.

This partnership bolsters the mission of Meharry, providing the resources and reach we need to serve the underserved and eliminate health disparities in Nashville and beyond. It advances our vision of forging innovative partnerships that create the best opportunities for our students and the local community. Significantly, the partnership allows us to bring home our students who have been training in Tennessee hospitals outside of Nashville and out of state.

Meharry entered into the partnership with HCA with great care. For years, our students have trained at Nashville General Hospital, which is located on our North Nashville campus. Yet, patient volumes at the hospital have dropped in recent years, forcing us to send our students out of Nashville to several other hospitals to receive training. This situation, coupled with our need for greater long-term stability in our training programs, compelled Meharry to seek an alternative.

We found the ideal partner in HCA. Meharry and HCA have an abiding, decades-long relationship. For years, our doctors have practiced at HCA hospitals, and members of HCA leadership have served on our Board of Trustees. HCA strongly supports our mission and believes that working more closely with Meharry will inform its care for the underserved.

Since 1876, we at Meharry Medical College have dedicated ourselves to providing the very best care to the nation’s diverse and underserved populations. Today’s announcement is a reaffirmation of our unwavering passion for and focus on that mission. We are most excited to envision the impact this partnership will have on the people of our neighborhood who have been at the heart of Meharry’s work for 142 years. This is our top priority: to foster a bright future for the community we proudly call home.

We greatly appreciate your continued support of Meharry Medical College and welcome your thoughts and questions as we finalize our plan for the partnership over the coming months. Together, we are changing the future of healthcare for the people who need us most.

Sincerely,
James E.K. Hildreth, Ph.D., M.D.
President and CEO

Nelson L. Adams III, M.D.
Chairman, Meharry Board of Trustees

To see the announcement, CLICK HERE.