Mercy applies for $27M Springfield rehab hospital

Mercy has submitted plans to the state for a $27 million rehabilitation hospital that would be located near the $116 million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital under construction in southeast Springfield.

The proposed hospital at the 3000 block of Evans Road would replace Mercy's existing 34-bed inpatient unit on the second floor of the West Pavilion on Mercy's main Springfield campus, according to the plans submitted to the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee.

The roughly 63,000-square-foot, 60-bed facility, dubbed Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Springfield LLC, would be a joint venture of Mercy and Brentwood, Tenn.-based Centerre Healthcare. Centerre currently operates five rehabilitation hospitals, including one each in St. Louis and Oklahoma City in partnership with Mercy.

According to the plans, Mercy refers about 1,000 patients annually to its rehab center at its South National Avenue campus, but the 20,480-square-foot space wasn't originally designed as a rehab unit and has space constraints. As a result, admissions during the last fiscal year were roughly 430 patients.

If approved, the new hospital would include:

• brain injury, dedicated stroke and dedicated spinal cord injury units with specialized equipment;
• gymnasiums with high-tech therapy devices and treatments;
• rooms equipped for bariatric patients; and
• an apartment where patients and families could practice daily living tasks.

Mercy has estimated admissions for the new hospital of 730 in 2015, 1,202 in 2016 and 1,256 in 2017.

The proposed site is northwest of the Mercy Orthopedic Hospital, a 200,000-square-foot facility with an estimated completion date of fall 2013, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.[[In-content Ad]]