TriStar Centennial Medical Center has launched a $90 million overhaul of its children's and women's hospitals that includes enhancing birthing suites and emergency care for newborns and kids. It's the hospital's largest investment of its kind in more than 40 years.
The two hospitals are housed in the same building, but parents currently must take their children to the TriStar Centennial Women's Hospital's main entrance off Murphy Avenue and then snake through the building to get to the pediatric side. In the future, child patients can go directly into TriStar Centennial Children's Hospital when it opens its own entrance facing Patterson Street.
Construction began in October and is expected to continue through 2028, TriStar Centennial Medical Center
CEO Tom Ozburn said during an exclusive interview with The Tennessean.
"When we get done in two-and-a-half years, it's literally going to be a brand-new hospital inside and out," he said, referring to both facilities.
This investment is the largest of its kind since HCA bought the medical center, when it was a general acute care hospital in 1994. It was rebranded as a women's hospital in 2005, with the pediatric program beginning in 2012. Both are located near Centennial Park on TriStar's 43-acre campus, along with the main hospital, TriStar Centennial Medical Center.
Construction crews will build a new pediatric intensive care unit across the hall from the children's hospital's emergency department. Currently, kids in the ICU are treated at the main hospital. Now, child patients in regular rooms must be transported to the main hospital for imaging, but imaging equipment will be added to the enlarged operating rooms at the children's hospital.
The hospital also will modernize the 60-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, known as the NICU.
TriStar Centennial Children's Hospital has hired several physicians during the past year to expand pediatric specialty care in cardiology, emergency medicine, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, oncology, endocrinology, plastic surgery, general surgery and rehabilitation.
Other improvements include nearly doubling treatment rooms, expanding the operating rooms and adding a CT imaging suite, Ozburn said.
TriStar Centennial Women's Hospital, which delivered 2,806 babies in 2025, completed construction 14 months ago to modernize its obstetrics emergency department. That was a separate $16 million project, Ozburn said. Six new OB-GYN physicians were recruited in the past year, he said.
Future plans include a children's playroom on the women's surgical floor and enlarged birthing suites repainted with calming pastel blues and greens.
The investment aims to keep pace with projected continued growth in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
"It's a double whammy for the city where we're seeing our populace grow, but we're also seeing our industrial base grow," the hospital CEO said. "We want to be able to be here to care for those workforces and those new people that are coming to town."
Hospital leaders also are working to update the aesthetics to create "more welcoming spaces" and personalized care for child patients and their families, he said.
The medical center is rolling out its "We Deliver Love" branding campaign, centered on Joy the Lamb, a new mascot and stuffed animal given to families after a baby is born.
"That's going to carry through in everything we do around this construction project," Ozburn said.
Beth Warren covers health care and can be reached at bwarren@tennessean.com or on X at @BethWarrenCJ.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TriStar Centennial unveils $90M expansion of children's, women's hospitals: Exclusive
