A Veterans Affairs hospital will come to Knoxville, according to U.S. Rep. Jimmy Duncan.
Duncan said Dr. Todd Burnett, a top official with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, told him last week a VA hospital will come to Knoxville, and it's no longer a matter of if but when.
Duncan told 10News he has been in regular contact with VA officials since July 2015, when he first set a meeting with the VA and Tennova to push for VA hospital in Knoxville.
"That was very encouraging to me, that they said it was not a question of 'if' anymore, but a question of 'when,' " Duncan said.
Authorities are still in the process of determining which services to place there, and where exactly the hospital will be built, Duncan said.
Knoxville currently has one VA clinic that offers some out-patient services including primary care, mental health care, vision and hearing treatment. However, patients often have to travel to Jefferson City or Nashville for specialty treatment.
Duncan said the veteran population is increasing in Knoxville, as people all over the country are moving in from high-tax states to places like East Tennessee.
According to the Mountain Home VA Medical Center, 17,000 veterans are serviced in Knoxville and surrounding areas.
Sandra Glover Hood, the chief communication's officer for the VA MidSouth Healthcare Network, said she was involved in a meeting with Duncan on July 11. She said VA officials discussed the recent growth of Knoxville's veteran population, as well as the need to expand services and access to care for veterans in the area.
Hood, however, said the VA is not confirming the new hospital. Still, she did not dispute Duncan's statements.
"We recognize there is a need for expanded services, but what that expansion is going to look like we don't know at this time," she said.
She said the department is looking at options, and has not yet made a decision for which option they will choose.
Some have speculated that officials could place a VA hospital at the old St Mary's Hospital site in North Knoxville, which Tennova Healthcare currently operates as Physicians Regional Medical Center. In 2015, Tennova purchased a 109-acre plot of land to relocate the health center.
In a statement, Tennova VP of Marketing and Development Russell Mariott told 10News: "While plans have not been finalized for the future of the Physicians Regional Medical Center site, we remain open to working with other agencies to help plan how areas of the current campus that will be vacated can be utilized to provide services for the benefit of our community. Until then, Physicians Regional remains operational and continues to provide high quality care."
Don Smith is president of the Knoxville chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America. With few details, he's hoping expanded services will bring a full-scale hospital with specialty services, in-patient beds and a full ER.
"So if our veterans get hurt, if they break their leg, if they wake up bleeding, they have a place to go where the VA, who is supposed to be providing them with their healthcare, can do just that," Smith said.