(December 10, 2009) New hospitals at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc. - Mount Vernon, Ill., campus and St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo. were recently given the green light to proceed.
St. Mary's Good Samaritan - Mount Vernon campus announced Thursday its plans for a new 134-bed hospital. The 359,000-square-foot replacement hospital will be double the size of the existing facility. The $237 million project also includes a medical office building, surgery center and outpatient diagnostic services.
An official groundbreaking ceremony for the Illinois hospital will be held in April 2010 to mark the official start of construction The hospital is expected to open in early 2013.
"We are very excited to announce our plans to break ground in April," said Mike Warren, president of the Mount Vernon campus. "We have carefully planned this project for many years, and it has been well worth the effort. Our new hospital will incorporate some of the most innovative health care design concepts in the country.
Phil Gustafson, CEO, St. Mary's Good Samaritan Inc., at standing-room-only Dec .10 news conference announcing new hospital in Mount Vernon, Ill. |
”It will also include features unique to Good Samaritan based upon thoughtful input from our physicians, our employees, and members of our community," Warren added. "Together, we have designed a state-of-the-art hospital for the people of Southern Illinois."
Warren said the new hospital would have all private rooms with accommodations for family members; safety features to reduce patient falls; nature elements to promote a healing environment; green design concepts to save energy; room service menu selection for patients; and a convenient layout for outpatient services and parking. The new medical campus will be located on Veteran's Memorial Drive, directly adjacent to the new interchange for Interstates 57 and 64. Two of Good Samaritan's joint venture projects, the Orthopedic Center of Southern Illinois and the Center for Comprehensive Cancer Care, are already located there.
Said Phil Gustafson, CEO of St. Mary's Good Samaritan Inc.: "Our organization has experienced considerable growth over the past decade due to the successful recruitment of so many excellent physicians. With a new facility, we will be able to take this growth to a new level by attracting highly-trained physicians, nurses, and technologists to our organization in the immediate and long-term future."
At St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo., officials announced Dec. 7 a timeline for construction of its new hospital project, which will cost about $200 million. The hospital, which will have 167 all-private rooms, will be designed in 2010 with construction beginning in 2012 and completed in 2014. The project will be preceded by construction of a new highway interchange on Missouri 179 adjacent to the new site on Jefferson City's west side.
St. Mary's has drawn from an unprecedented amount of involvement in the development of the new facility. Starting in 2008, function-based teams of employees, physicians and other partners have met with architects to come up with new ways of delivering health care based on evolving patient needs in central Missouri.
"We've definitely been dreaming big dreams," St. Mary's President Brent VanConia said. "Now it's time to roll up our sleeves, where we can put all these evidence-based ideas to paper as they become reality."
St. Mary's will finalize construction documents as a new interchange begins taking shape in 2011. The road project will be complete just in time for the hospital's ground-breaking in 2012.
Both projects' timelines had been extended due to the economic downturn. During that time, St. Mary’s leadership worked with SSM to determine the best time to restart the project as conditions allowed. "This is some really great news for St. Mary’s and for our community," St. Mary's President Brent VanConia said.
St. Mary's recently earned a 2009 Missouri Quality Award.
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