It will soon be festival time in Greeneville!  The 19th Annual Iris Festival will be held in downtown historic Greeneville Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19.  As always, the festival will offer a wide variety of artists and craftsmen selling their wares, as well as a smorgasbord of great things to eat.  There will be dancing and singing from downtown stages, as well as a merchant's market and the Evergreene Woodcarvers Show and Competition.  The hours of the festival will be Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

Volunteers are needed for the t-shirt and coke booths at the 19th Annual Iris Festival, Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19.  Please contact Lori Collins at 638-4111 or email gcp@greenecop.com for more information.

Approximately 90 individuals attended the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" Seminar hosted by the Partnership and presented by Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz recently at the General Morgan Inn.  Following lunch, Andrea Bailey Powers from the Birmingham, Ala., office of Baker, Donelson, gave a very informative presentation on the new health care act.  Many thanks to Takoma Regional Hospital and Rodefer Moss & Co for sponsoring the event.

The Tourism Department is looking for a few good people that give exemplary service to their customers. The department will be conducting its annual "Presidential Pioneer in Hospitality Award" Program during National Tourism Week May 4-12, a week-long observance of the role that tourism plays in our economy.  The award will recognize front-line service personnel who give their all to make the customers' visits to their establishments enjoyable and memorable ones.  The Tourism Department will select up to five winners to be recognized during National Tourism Week.  A committee will pay a visit to the winners' places of business during working hours to present the awards which will include personalized plaques.  You may either fill out the attached form or log on to www.VisitGreenevilleTN.com, 

click on Events and download an application from the entry for "National Tourism Week."  Submit nomination(s) no later than May 3 to Tammy Kinser at tkinser@greenecop.com, or fax to 423-638-5345.

This month marks the annual observance of National Park Week, April 20-28.  Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, along with the 400 other National Park units, will participate with events throughout the week.  The Andrew Johnson NHS Visitor Center will host a daily lunch time movie series from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Visitor Center media room April 21-28.  Visitors will see segments from the landmark Ken Burns documentary, "National Parks: America's Best Idea." Guests are encouraged to bring a bag lunch and enjoy the films along with the park staff.

A "Drug Take Back" event will be held by the Volunteer Center, Greeneville Water Commission, Greeneville Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  They will be collecting prescriptions that are no longer needed.  No needles will be accepted.  Contact Mary Fitzpatrick at 639-9341 for more information.

Takoma Regional Hospital was recently designated an HIMSS "Stage 6" designation for excellence in implementing electronic medical record technology. Only eight percent of hospitals nationally have achieved Stage 6, which is significant because electronic medical records have been shown to increase patient safety. Achieving Stage 6 means that Takoma is almost fully paperless with electronic physician documentation, full clinical decision support and full picture archiving and communications systems available. Stage 6 status is obtained through the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics' EMR Adoption Model, which was developed as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical records systems using their database.