ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. - Ground was broken Monday on a new $6.5 million medical office building on the campus of Sycamore Shoals Hospital.

"This marks a day of reinvestment in the Elizabethton community by Sycamore Shoals Hospital and Mountain States Health Alliance," said Dwayne Taylor, CEO of SSH. "This is the largest investment by Mountain States in the Carter County community since the hospital joined the healthcare system in 1998."

The 36,000-square-foot building will be located in the field between SSH and Wal-Mart. It will house four medical practices owned by Blue Ridge Medical Management Corp., the for-profit arm of Mountain States. The practices include Blue Ridge Orthopedics, Sycamore Shoals Primary Care, Sycamore Shoals General Surgery and Elizabethton Internal Medicine Associates. It will also house SSH Physical Therapy, Synergy Laboratory and a 2,600-square-foot rotating specialty clinic that will offer additional medical expertise to the Carter County community.

The building is expected to be open by 2011. "Blue Ridge is the part of Mountain States that runs more than 75 physician practices with more than 200 providers," said Steve Kilgore, president of BRMMC. "We are happy to support this project and continue to expand our services here in Elizabethton."

About Mountain States Health Alliance

Mountain States Health Alliance, a not-for-profit healthcare organization based in Johnson City, Tenn., operates a family of hospitals serving a 29-county, four-state region (Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Southeastern Kentucky and Western North Carolina). Mountain States offers a large tertiary hospital, several community hospitals, two critical access hospitals, rehabilitation, a children's hospital, a behavioral health hospital, home care and hospice services as well as a comprehensive medical management corporation. Its 9,000 team members are committed to its mission of bringing loving care to health care. For more information, visit www.msha.com.