The Jamestown Regional Medical Center is open.

But if anyone were to need to actually go to the emergency room, it would not feel that way.

“They were out of a lot of supplies that they need to operate,” said Fentress County Executive Jimmy Johnson. “For the safety of the residents of Fentress County, they thought it would be best to go into diversion mode.”

The hospital is the only one in Jamestown and Fentress County. The next closest is more than 30 miles away and takes more than an hour to get to.

“It’s our center of care, it’s our main care for this area here,” said Micah Dunford, the Director of the Fentress County ambulance service. “With the hospital on ambulance and admission diversion, we are now taking our patients to the closest appropriate facilities. That means Cookeville, Crossville, or Livingston which is about 40 minutes to an hour away.”

The Jamestown hospital is owned by Rennova. In a statement, a spokesperson said the company had no plans of closing the hospital or either of the other two it owns in Oneida and Jellico.   FULL STORY HERE