Friday, May 29, 2026Good morning! 
For many locals, the sudden closure came as a shock. Debbie Stanaford said she had been in the hospital just days earlier. “I have a tumor on my back, and I was there right before [it closed] and was taken care of,” Debbie said. “It was a great hospital then, and it’s very sad that it’s closed now, because we need it.”
Over the last two years, this former coal mining town has tried to court healthcare companies to reopen the hospital, without success.
“For many locals,” writes WUOT’s Pierce Gentry, “it’s become a controversial topic that prompts embarrassment or outrage, and is best avoided when speaking to strangers.”
Pierce decided to try anyway. And what he found was a quagmire of financial and governmental decisions that have left Jellico — and likely other towns like it — in a hospital desert.
WHAT TO KNOW
The Jellico Regional Hospital sits abandoned near the center of town.
Credit: Pierce Gentry / WUOTMore than 150 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 as they become less and less profitable, according to the University of North Carolina. Tennessee has the most closures per capita, with 14.
Here’s what Pierce found about the situation in Jellico:
🏥 Keeping a small hospital open is financially difficult, even with plenty of demand. A 2,000-person community couldn’t seem to provide enough business: In 2024, the hospital posted a loss of roughly $14 million in the first quarter under new ownership. Local minister Benji Johnson says he remembers when supplies stopped showing up to the hospital because it was losing so much money. “They did try to keep the hospital going, they did try to keep jobs going,” Johnson said. “I think their back was up against the wall so they just turned around and decided to shut this place down.”
🏥 There are federal subsidies to help rural communities keep their hospitals afloat,but Jellico isn’t considered “rural” by the federal standards.Instead, the small town and several surrounding communities get lumped into the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, even though Knoxville is an hour’s drive. “And I think that boggles everybody’s minds,” says local newspaper editor Robby O’Daniel. (The UNC tally of hospital closures, meanwhile, considers Jellico an “isolated rural” area.)
🏥 The city isn’t keeping up the building. This is according to Johnson, and it addds to the financial burden of reopening. “Now, water pipes is busted, ceiling tiles are falling down,” he says. “You got wallpaper that’s peeling off the walls.” The city also wants to charge operators for the privilege of running its hospital. Jellico Mayor Sandy Terry did not respond to Pierce’s repeated attempts for an interview, and when he showed up at the city hall, he was told she only worked one day a week. Later, she told WUOT that she doesn’t return calls to “news people.” Dive into our coverage
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MORE TO KNOW
- Tennessee’s mid-decade redistricting has survived its first legal challenge. A three-judge panel has upheld Tennessee’s new congressional map in response to one of the NAACP’s cases. The NAACP argued that the General Assembly did not have the authority to strike down a 50-year-old law that prohibited mid-decade redistricting. According to WPLN’s Marianna Bacallao, the judges found that lawmakers did indeed have that power. Meanwhile, here are the latest developments in redistricting in Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, South Carolina and Florida — because, let’s face it, we all need a scorecard.
- Nashville plans to invest $60 million into hosting the 2030 Super Bowl and hopes to generate more than $380 in direct spending. That’s according to a study commissioned by the Convention and Visitors Corp., which called it a “return on investment greater than any event Nashville has hosted to date.” Still, some economists say those returns don’t always materialize. Some of the spending, such as money paid to major hotel chains, does not stay in the local economy. And these estimates often fail to account for the baseline of visitor spending that happens even without a major event. The goal of luring the Super Bowl was a major driver behind the decision to build the more than $2 billion Titans Stadium, more than half of which was subsidized by taxpayers. [Tennessee Lookout]
- A new species of tick is popping up more frequently in Tennessee. The Asian long-horned tick is typically reddish brown with no distinguishing marks on its back. They appear to be less attracted to people than normal ticks, and early research is unclear about how often they spread disease to humans. But they can pose a serious threat to livestock. So far, they’ve been found in rural counties of Middle and East Tennessee. If you find any tick, the University of Tennessee recommends removing them with tweezers, getting as close to the skin as possible and pulling the bug away with steady pressure. Don’t jerk or twist, since that can leave remnants that increase the chances of infection. Follow up soap, water and an antiseptic. [The Tennessean]
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