Nashville Cultivates Strong Health Care Culture
Published Apr 30, 2009
The Nashville area is home to a lengthy roster of health-care enterprises, including Franklin-based Healthways Inc.
With more than 300 companies operating on a multi-state, national or international basis, and more than 250 professional service firms supplying them with everything from banking and finance to legal, architectural and other services, it’s no secret that the Nashville area is a health-care hub.
Intellectual property spinoffs from local universities and other sources of research are generating new health-care enterprise despite the national economic downturn, says Caroline Young, president of the Nashville Health Care Council. “Over the last 40 years, probably no city has brought as much innovation and entrepreneurial energy to the health-care industry as Nashville,” she says.
Emdeon, a provider of revenue and payment-cycle solutions, has consolidated its local operations into a unified headquarters in Nashville’s Donelson neighborhood. This put more than half of the company’s 2,000 employees in a two-building, 165,000-square-foot space, says Susanne Powell, the company’s director of corporate communications.
The firm chose to remain in Nashville for two main reasons: First, it is a central location for more than 20 other facilities as well as Emdeon’s U.S. customer base, Second, the region enjoys a vibrant health-care climate.
“It really is a hub of health-care innovation here, and that long history of involvement in health-care technology was very important to us,” Powell says.
Having a deep bench of like-minded companies is invaluable in terms of networking and shared opportunities for growth, says Thomas Cigarran, chairman of the Nashville Health Care Council and chairman of Healthways Inc., a provider of customized care plans for individuals and health-plan sponsors and a pioneer in disease-management services.
Cigarran notes that the venture-capital clearinghouse Nashville Capital Network saw more than 100 different pitches from entrepreneurs across a wide spectrum of health-care endeavors who sought funding for their ideas.
“The fundamental dynamic in Nashville really is the entrepreneurial spirit, the people who’ve come to Nashville from all over the country,” Cigarran says. “Some came here to work for other companies, had an idea and began their own company, and that’s never been more true than it is today.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Antony Boshier
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