Mercy's Joplin hospital reopening four years after tornado

Nearly four years after an EF5 tornado struck Joplin and destroyed St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Mercy is scheduled to open a replacement hospital in the city this weekend.

The $465 million, 890,000-square-foot center, now under the name Mercy Hospital Joplin, has a March 22 scheduled opening date for patients, according to a news release.

The site of the new hospital is about three miles away from the former center, which was among facilities heavily damaged by the May 22, 2011, storm. Officials later fully demolished the hospital and donated the 50-acre site for a multipurpose cultural complex.

“This rebuilding effort became part of the healing process for the community,” said Norman Morgan, principal for project architect HKS Inc., in the release. “It wasn’t only about a facility; it was about people - a community suffering from loss and devastation.”

McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. served as general contractor for the project, which includes a nine-story patient tower, 205 private rooms and units for medical surgery, critical care, women’s, children’s and neonatal care, behavioral health and rehabilitation. A 30,000-square-foot central utility plant also connects to the hospital via a 450-foot underground tunnel.

“It was hard to say goodbye to the building that was home to St. John’s since 1968,” said Gary Pulsipher, president of Mercy Hospital Joplin, in a separate release. “But like the rest of the city, we are glad to be moving ahead and looking to the future. While we will never forget what happened there, we’ve had amazing support throughout the rebuilding process.”