Cox home health services to share facility

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Explosive growth in the number of southwest Missouri patients who need home support and home infusion has prompted Cox Home Support Systems and Cox Home Parenteral Services to build a new 20,000-square-foot building at 2224 W. Sunset. |ret||ret||tab|

The two home health care divisions of Cox Health Systems, which are now located in separate facilities on West Vista, hope to move into the new facility by late spring or early summer. MoDoCo is the general contractor for the project, and the architect is Warren Bates & Associates Architects. The estimated construction cost is approximately $1.1 million. |ret||ret||tab|

"This will give us an opportunity to move in together and see some efficiencies over some of the patients who are served by both services," said Lynn Kelley, operating manager for Cox Home Parenteral Services. |ret||ret||tab|

Kelley established Home Parenteral Services with Oxford HealthCare President Charles Goforth in 1984. Both companies were sold to Cox in 1993. |ret||ret||tab|

HPS, located at 2040 W. Vista, provides comprehensive 24-hour home IV therapies, including IV antibiotics, pain control, hydration, dobutamine and chemotherapy, as well as IV nutrition. Its staff of 30 includes four pharmacists and 12 registered nurses who specialize in oncology, parenteral and enteral therapy. HPS serves about 1,200 patients in 50 counties, Kelley said.|ret||ret||tab|

Cox Home Support Systems, located at 2127 W. Vista, provides 24-hour comprehensive respiratory therapy services and home medical equipment such as hospital beds, wheelchairs, home air-filtration systems and sleep apnea monitors. |ret||ret||tab|

Home Support also provides home assessment and recommendations for home modifications to meet the needs of the physically challenged, such as widening doorways. Cox Home Support employs about 32 and serves about 5,000 patients, said General Manager Mike Williams.|ret||ret||tab|

He said now is a good time for the agencies to join in one building because both are bursting at the seams in their existing 6,000-square-foot facilities. |ret||ret||tab|

"There's been a lot of growth in both businesses, and this new building will really accommodate that growth," Kelley said. "We've both experienced a 15 percent to 20 percent growth each year for the last five years."|ret||ret||tab|

Williams said Home Support and Home Parenteral hope to increase patient volume without adding employees at first, but added that the new facility will provide much-needed room for both agencies to add employees as their patient loads dictate. |ret||ret||tab|

"With the continued growth that both agencies have been experiencing, we'll be able to add more employees as they're needed," Kelley said.|ret||ret||tab|

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