Staff

The Emergency Medicine team at Regional One Health is a group of UTROP physicians who hold faculty appointments with UTHSC and share a commitment to caring for an underserved, high-acuity population. The department is actively growing its permanent physician team, so each new physician has a visible role in shaping how the department runs, teaches, and plans for the new hospital.

Department Leadership

Dr. Hawkins brings more than 20 years of emergency medicine experience, including prior medical director roles at a community hospital and an academic medical center. He also holds an MBA with a healthcare focus.

Physician Staffing

The department is building toward its target with permanent physicians and currently uses locums to cover part of the schedule. This gives you an immediate place on the team and room to influence its direction as it grows.

Team Composition

• Three night-focused physicians who reduce night coverage for other faculty
• Two physicians with disaster medicine training
• Physician scheduling managed within the department by a faculty physician
• Nights, weekends, and holidays shared among full-time physicians

Clinical Team and Collaboration

You will work within a multidisciplinary team that changes depending on which ED you are covering.

• APPs: Integrated into daily care on the Jefferson side; limited coverage on CCA
• EM residents: One on days and one on nights at Regional One
• Trauma surgery: Large, consistent presence on the CCA side
• Anesthesia: Manages airways for the highest-level trauma activations
• Nursing: Each ED currently has its own nursing leadership; the new hospital plan unifies nursing leadership under one combined ED

Practice Culture

• Mission focused on patients who often have nowhere else to go
• Hands-on clinical work paired with one-on-one teaching
• Earlier access to titles, committees, and leadership than many mature academic departments
• Department chairs, chiefs, and medical directors participate on the steering committee for the new hospital