This fall, Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford officials announced plans for an additional $110 million facility development of the hospital campus starting before year's end with completion in 2024. The project will bring the hospital's bed count from 358 to 416 and includes an addition of 16 Critical Care Unit beds, a build-out of 36 medical beds in shelled space in the West Tower, development of a higher level NICU with six bassinets, reconfiguration of the second floor to support expanded operating rooms and addition of more than 1,000 new parking spaces.

Additionally, Ascension hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in late September for Tennessee's first neighborhood hospital on Veterans Parkway off Interstate 840. Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Westlawn Hospital will include eight private inpatient medical beds, an emergency department with eight treatment rooms, diagnostic imaging and laboratory services and a second story with convenient outpatient services. Work is already underway on the adjacent Westlawn Surgery Center with partners USPI and Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance.