Draft:Cumberland Medical Center

Cumberland Medical Center is a 72-bed, secondary care general hospital located in Crossville, Tennessee. It is part of Covenant Health, and has been so since joining the eastern Tennessee-based healthcare system in 2014.

History
Cumberland County's first medical facility opened in 1921, when Dr. May Cravath Wharton began operating a two-bed clinic in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee. The following year, Uplands Cumberland Mountain Sanitorium was established as a 30-bed general hospital in Pleasant Hill and grew several times during the mid- to late 1930s. However, as the medical needs of the community outpaced the capabilities of Cumberland General, plans for a new regional health center began to form. Though delayed several years by World War II, ground broke on Cumberland Medical Center on November 5, 1948 in Crossville, Tennessee. Construction would go on for approximately one and a half years. Cumberland Medical Center officially admitted its first patient on March 19, 1950 at midnight. The dedication ceremony that day included several speakers, including Senator Albert Gore.

Facilities
Cumberland Medical Center opened with only two wings, "A" and "B," consisting of two operating rooms, a small medical laboratory, and x-ray department. In 1960, a "C" wing was added, giving some 17 additional patient beds. In 1969, the hospital underwent another expansion, increasing bed space to a total of 127 and adding an emergency department. Yet more expansions in 1973 and then in 1977 increased total bed capacity to 159 and 216, respectively.