Mercy chooses site for new Joplin St. John's hospital

Last edited 3:42 p.m., Aug. 22, 2011

Sisters of Mercy Health System announced yesterday it has chosen a location for a new Joplin hospital, about three miles away from the site where its former facility was destroyed by the May 22 EF-5 tornado that hit the area. The health system plans for nearly $1 billion in construction and development of health care facilities.

St. John's has been operating out of a mobile medical unit in Joplin since May 29.

The plans include completing a hard-sided modular development currently under construction behind the mobile unit, as well as a permanent location at a recently purchased site at the intersection of Interstate 44 and Main Street. The new hospital will be developed on 100 acres, with the entrance
off of 50th Street.

Mercy plans to rebuild with 327 inpatient beds and later expand to up to 424 beds. Hospital facilities would comprise medical surgery, critical care, women's and children's care, behavioral health and rehabilitation. More than 2,000 Mercy workers displaced by the old hospital's destruction will be given jobs at the new facility.

“By rebuilding our hospital, our schools and our community in Joplin, we rise out of the debris and look to the future, setting in motion a new Joplin landscape and economic recovery,” Mercy President and CEO Lynn Britton said. “We will find innovative ways to serve Joplin and continue to provide compassionate, patient-centered care.”

Mercy also announced a commitment to build another hospital and multispecialty operations center on the northeast side of Joplin, the cost for which is not included in the $1 billion figure.

“We are making this commitment because it’s the right thing to do,” Britton said.

Mercy plans to break ground on the new hospital January 2012 and open it, and the secondary campus, in 2014.

Look for more on this story in the Aug. 22 issue of Joplin Tri-State Business Journal.[[In-content Ad]]