Support for move
Our recent poll 1 of Davidson County residents shows that support for moving the site of Nashville General Hospital and building a new facility outnumbers opposition to the move by a two-to-one margin (48 percent support to 21 percent oppose). However, as shown in the figure on the right, one-in-three Nashville residents (32 percent) are either neutral on the issue or don’t know enough to answer.
Notably, this poll suggests Davidson County residents are not terribly plugged into news related to Nashville General Hospital. While a third register no opinion on the notion of moving the hospital today, even more, 47 percent, indicate they are not too familiar with the previous effort to close Nashville General Hospital.
Basic facts expand support for the move
When presented with arguments both in favor of and in opposition to the move, respondents move overwhelmingly towards supporting the proposal to move Nashville General Hospital. More than 7-in-10 residents support the proposal following messaging that details the pros and cons of moving the hospital. We find that across all of the arguments, residents are most responsive to the messages in support of the move. Notably, these three themes emerge as the best reasons to support the move:
- The hospital’s current location is outdated and needs expensive upgrades.
- The new hospital will meet contemporary standards to provide better care and accommodate Nashville’s growing community.
- The proposed new location is on city land that will be donated, and the move will be privately funded, creating a state-of-the-art hospital at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
View all TargetSmart Survey Data (PDF)
1 The survey reached 492 Davidson County, Tennessee, residents aged 18 or older from June 9 to 12, 2022. Eighty-one percent took the survey via telephone and 19 percent were reached via SMS and took the survey online. Quotas were assigned to reflect the demographic distribution of the Davidson County voting age population. The margin of error is +/- 4.4%.