Pat Summitt Clinic opens to Alzheimer's patients

The Pat Summitt Clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center welcomed visitors Sunday as it hosted its first public open house event.

The clinic began taking patients Dec. 20 and hosted a soft-opening on Jan. 15, but Sunday’s open house was the first time that the clinic has been open for the public to peruse and talk to some of the nurses and physicians who help the clinic treat its more than 3,000 patients and family members.

The clinic was announced in January 2015, while Summitt still was alive, and planning and fundraising for it began. Summitt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 and was actively involved in fundraising for the clinic through the Pat Summitt Foundation until her death in June 2016.

Summitt’s legacy is well preserved by the clinic, the clinic’s Medical Director Dr. Roberto Fernandez said. Fernandez credits Summitt with inspiring the nurses, physicians and medical assistants who work at the clinic to commit themselves to helping Alzheimer’s patients and their families.

“She was an incredible leader and she was hard-working and passionate, and we are inspired by that,” Fernandez said. “It’s one of the things that really makes a difference in this clinic, having her as a role model.”

“It’s been a guiding light for us,” he added. “That’s something we all share and it’s certainly been instrumental.”

Visitors to the clinic were welcomed by a number of hospital personnel, including Dr. Russ Langdon, the medical advisor at the UT Medical Center’s Brain and Spine Institute, which houses the Pat Summitt Clinic. Langdon and other staff members guided more than 50 visitors through the clinic, answering questions about the clinic’s layout and explaining some of the clinic’s thoughtfully designed features.

According to Langdon, the clinic is designed to help prevent Alzheimer’s patients, who often have lowered senses of direction, from getting lost in the clinic or feeling disoriented. The clinic also features several consultation suites that serve as cozy, intimate areas wherein Alzheimer’s patients and their families can discuss the clinic’s comprehensive treatment approaches with physicians.

Dr. Steve Ross, senior vice president for strategic development at UT Medical Center, explained during the open house that many considerations were taken to make sure the clinic would be a safe place for Alzheimer’s patients.

“This facility was designed around people with memory disorders and all the things that they face in life,” Ross said. “The music is soothing, the fish tank is soothing. It’s all really giving them that sense of comfort.”

Ross and Fernandez both believe that the clinic has unlimited potential to make an impact on the way that Alzheimer’s is treated in East Tennessee and across the country. Fernandez explained that he hopes the clinic will be a catalyst for improving Alzheimer’s treatment research.

“We’re trying to create an environment that will foster that research at many different levels starting with the most basic molecular aspects of the disease and going all the way to clinical treatments,” he said.

Sunday’s crowd was well received by Ross and Pat Summitt Foundation Executive Director Patrick Wade. Donations from members of the public and high-profile donors, such as Peyton and Ashley Manning and Jim and Natalie Haslam, helped the Pat Summitt Foundation raise the money to fund the clinic’s design and its construction. Wade made a point of emphasizing just how important community support has been to the establishment and the success of the clinic.

“Without the support of the community, the foundation wouldn’t exist. So much of this is built on the support of fans all over the country,” Wade said. “We certainly stand on the shoulders of all those donors throughout the country that make this possible.”

Fernandez added that public support for the clinic demonstrated the compassion that East Tennesseans have for Alzheimer’s patients and their families.

“I think that says a lot about the kind of people that folks in Knoxville and East Tennessee are,” he said. “The generosity of the public has been instrumental, and will continue to be instrumental to the success of our clinic.”