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Regional One Healthregionalonehealth.org
Regional One Health
Tennessee's oldest hospital — the place the whole Mid-South counts on when the worst happens.
Regional One Health is the Mid-South's public safety-net health system — born in 1829 as Tennessee's first hospital, known to generations of Memphians as The MED, and today the region's most critical medical infrastructure. Its Elvis Presley Trauma Center is the only Level 1 trauma center within 150 miles, serving West Tennessee, East Arkansas, and North Mississippi. Its Firefighters Burn Center is the region's only full-service burn center. Its Sheldon B. Korones Newborn Center has saved tens of thousands of the Mid-South's smallest lives since 1968. When a worker is hurt on the job, when a firefighter is burned, when a baby comes too early — this is where the Mid-South goes. And as a public hospital, it stands open to working families whether or not the insurance card is gold-plated.
What Regional One Does
Elvis Presley Trauma Center
The only Level 1 trauma center in a 150-mile radius — three states deep. Workplace injuries, wrecks, and the worst moments of working people's lives land here, and this team gives them tomorrows.
Firefighters Burn Center
The region's only full-service burn center — named for the firefighters whose union brothers and sisters helped build it, treating industrial burns, house fires, and the workers who run toward danger.
Korones Newborn Center
Founded in 1968 — the same year Memphis sanitation workers marched for dignity — Dr. Sheldon Korones's NICU has fought for the dignity of the Mid-South's tiniest patients ever since.
ONE Health Complex Care
A national model in complex care — meeting vulnerable patients' medical AND social needs together. The BBC's 'The Hearts of Nurses' film tells the story of this program transforming lives.
Everyday Care & Tools
Find a doctor, primary care, outpatient surgery, high-risk pregnancy services, an outpatient pharmacy with the RxRefill app, and the HealtheLife portal for managing your care.
ONE Campus — Built By Memphis
The ONE Campus initiative will replace aging facilities in one of the largest infrastructure projects in Shelby County history — a generational public investment that means years of good construction jobs for Memphis trades.
Why a Public Hospital Is Labor's Hospital
Every trauma bay tells a labor story: the roofer who fell, the lineman who got burned, the warehouse worker crushed on third shift. Regional One is where the Mid-South's working bodies get put back together — regardless of coverage — and its own nurses, techs, and support staff are the working people of Memphis caring for the working people of Memphis. A strong public hospital is worker infrastructure, as essential as roads and schools. And the coming ONE Campus rebuild is a once-in-a-generation chance to prove public dollars can buy both world-class care and good local jobs.
The Case for Public Investment
Why the City, County, and State Should Fund This Hospital
Start with the plain truth: Regional One saves lives every single day for people who could never afford that care anywhere else. The cafeteria worker with no insurance. The gig driver between jobs. The grandmother raising grandkids on a fixed income. When they come through those doors, nobody checks a bank balance before starting compressions. That is what a public hospital IS — and it only exists if the public funds it.
Second truth: everybody depends on Regional One, whether they know it or not. There is exactly one Level 1 trauma center within 150 miles — this one. The suburban commuter in a wreck on I-40, the hunter in a tree-stand fall in Fayette County, the executive in a helicopter from Mississippi — they are flown to the same trauma bays as the uninsured warehouse worker. When you underfund the safety net, you are underfunding the rope that catches every single one of us.
Third: Memphis and Shelby County taxpayers are quietly carrying a three-state burden. Regional One treats patients from West Tennessee, East Arkansas, and North Mississippi — but the local appropriation does the heavy lifting. Nashville should fund it because it is Tennessee's oldest hospital serving Tennessee's largest metro. The county should fund it because it is the county's hospital. The city should fund it because no institution does more for Memphians who have the least. And our neighboring states should be asked to pay for the trauma care their citizens fly in for.
Fourth: every dollar invested comes back multiplied. Uncompensated care that goes unfunded doesn't disappear — it shows up as sicker patients, costlier emergencies, crowded ERs everywhere else, and working families one accident away from bankruptcy. Fund the safety net up front and you buy healthier workers, stronger businesses, lower costs system-wide — plus the thousands of jobs Regional One anchors and the doctors and nurses it trains for the whole region alongside UTHSC.
Fifth: the ONE Campus rebuild is the test. Replacing facilities that date back generations is one of the largest infrastructure opportunities in Shelby County history. Done right — with real public investment at every level and Memphis trades building it — it delivers a world-class public hospital AND years of good local jobs. Done wrong — starved, delayed, deferred — and the Mid-South gambles its only trauma center on aging buildings.
They are literally saving lives every day for people who couldn't otherwise afford quality care. A city, county, and state that can find money for anything else can find money for that.
The New Regional One · 495 Union Ave
See What's Rising at the Old Commercial Appeal Building
On August 5, 2026, Regional One unveiled the design for its new $1 billion campus at 495 Union Avenue — the former Commercial Appeal site. One building, 600,000+ square feet, 315 beds, two helipads: a 'horizontal skyscraper' whose facade fins appear to move like a river as you drive down Union. Watch the full unveiling — including former Commercial Appeal editor Otis Sanford's farewell to '96 years of hallowed ground' and Mayor Lee Harris on why the county fought for it. Demolition began June 2026; groundbreaking is set for summer 2027, with Memphis firms Self and Tucker and brg3s on the design team and an estimated 10,000 construction jobs.
Full unveiling event, Aug 5, 2026 — Action News 5. Renderings reveal, Otis Sanford, Mayor Lee Harris, and Commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs.
A Community Partner of Labor Education
Labor Education features Regional One Health as a community partner and stands with the public hospital mission: no working family turned away, no trauma too far, no baby too small. Union families — know where your Level 1 trauma center is, support the Regional One Health Foundation if you can, and when the ONE Campus cranes go up, let's make sure Memphis hands build it.
Connect with Regional One Health
Want to get involved, partner, or learn more? Reach out through their website.
