Town to inherit former hospital

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is donating a hospital it closed last March in Somerville to the Fayette County town, the Memphis-based health care system said Friday.

The town plans to convert the hospital into a multipurpose facility that will include an extended campus of the University of Tennessee-Martin, officials said.

Gov. Bill Haslam was scheduled to join Somerville Mayor Ronnie Neil and Methodist’s vice president and chief executive of Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown, William Kenley, for a tour of the hospital and announcement of the donation.

The 45,000-square-foot building opened in 1971 at 214 Lakeview Road and has an appraised value of more than $5 million, according to Methodist. The health care system also is donating $250,000 toward its reuse.

Methodist announced in January that it would close Methodist Fayette Hospital, which it had operated since 1980, due to a low volume of patients. It was averaging about one inpatient a day.