While the recession is slowing many sectors, health care is bucking the trend.
Both of Springfield's major health systems are moving forward with extensive expansion plans for their physical facilities and the avenues through which care is provided.
Work is under way on $119 million in CoxHealth expansion projects. These include a new emergency department on the south hospital campus, with work slated to begin in May, and a new employee-parking garage to be complete in April that will replace the parking space used for the ER project.
Dr. John Duff, CoxHealth senior vice president of hospital services, said the new facility will include 66 beds and provisions for trauma care, surgical services and pediatric care among other services.
CoxHealth also is converting its Walnut Lawn campus into the Orthopedic Center of Excellence. That $47.8 million project is centered on transforming the Cox Walnut Lawn facility into the Meyer Orthopedic Center, an orthopedic specialty hospital that will have 35 private orthopedic patient rooms and beds for inpatient rehabilitation and transitional care.
Also part of the center are the existing Bone and Joint Center and the Meyer Fitness and Rehabilitation Center and the inpatient rehab services and skilled-nursing unit already in place there.
Duff said the "unique" new facility will be called the Meyer Orthopedic Center at Cox Walnut Lawn.
Creation of the orthopedic center boosts bed capacity at CoxHealth, Duff said, without having to build a new patient tower.
Moving north on Springfield's medical mile to St. John's Hospital, which opened its $101 million, 360,000-square-foot-patient tower in 2008, plans are in place to expand children's hospital services, including an enlarged neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit and a new facility for Ronald McDonald House inside the hospital's walls.
St. John's spokeswoman Cora Scott said plans also are in place to build a new heart hospital on the north side of the campus, in an effort to centralize heart services.
To make way for the heart hospital, the existing National Avenue Medical building will have to be demolished. Scott said St. John's is in the process of moving services out of that building, though no official time frame or estimated cost has been announced for construction.
"We believe that with a growing and aging population, that demand for services over the next 10 to 15 years will continue to grow," St. John's President and CEO Kim Day said in a written statement. "And we need to be prepared to meet that demand."
Citizens Memorial Healthcare in Bolivar is planning a new ophthalmology clinic. CMH recently completed remodeling of its radiology department and purchased a new computerized tomography machine and upgraded magnetic resonance imaging equipment.
Beyond physical expansion, CoxHealth in February unveiled The Clinic at Wal-Mart, set to open March 2 in the Walmart supercenter at 3315 S. Campbell Ave. The clinic will be open seven days a week to offer basic walk-in services including check-ups, immunizations and treatment of minor injuries.
