Yesterday, the 323 full- and part-time employees of the Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mount Vernon were notified the hospital, which houses a Veterans Affairs clinic, would close effective Oct. 31.
University of Missouri Health Care officials announced the closure via a news release, with officials citing unfilled rooms, a need for facility upgrades and uncertain financial support from the state as factors in the decision to shutter operations.
“Our first priority today, and in the next three months, will be ensuring continuity of care for our patients and supporting the employees of Missouri Rehabilitation Center,” said Mitch Wasden, CEO and chief operating officer of MU Health Care, in the release. “We will work closely with other long-term acute care centers and rehabilitation centers around the state to ensure all MRC patients receive the care they need.
"For MRC employees, we will be providing transition pay and benefits as well as transition assistance, including priority consideration for other jobs within MU Health Care.”
Mary Jenkins, a spokeswoman for MU Health Care, said uncertain state funding triggered an examination of the long-term future for the hospital. This year, the governor cut the hospital’s $10.4 million appropriation to $5.2 million ahead of September’s veto session.
“To put it into context, that $10 million annual appropriation funds one-third of MRC’s operating budget,” Jenkins said in a phone interview from Mount Vernon. “So, this year, when state funding was essentially cut in half, we knew we had to take a hard look at our operations long term.
“And with no assurance of continued state funding in the future, we projected that MRC would lose almost $1 million per month beginning in fiscal 2015."
Among key problems for the hospital are declining patient loads. According to the release, the center has not operated at full capacity for the past decade. Although it has the capacity for 130 inpatients, the daily census averaged 41.9 in fiscal year 2010; 40.4 in fiscal 2011; 35.4 in fiscal 2012; 29.4 in fiscal 2013; and 28.7 in fiscal 2014.
As of yesterday, MRC had 24 current inpatients.
MU Health Care officials also are in meetings with Veterans Affairs officials in Mount Vernon to discuss the needs of the VA outpatient clinic, which leases 35,000 square feet of space from MRC to operate a primary care, community-based outpatient clinic. The VA’s lease with MU Health Care runs through Oct. 31.
The VA plans to build a new clinic in Springfield, and has identified three possible locations for its future facility, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. A call to Wanda Shull, a spokeswoman for Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, was not returned by deadline.
Founded by the state of Missouri in 1907 as a tuberculosis hospital, Missouri Rehabilitation Center expanded its mission in 1971 to include all types of cardiac and pulmonary diseases, including emphysema, bronchitis, bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, among others. The name was changed to Missouri State Chest Hospital.
In 1985, the Missouri General Assembly again changed the MRC’s name and mission to answer the needs of those who were seriously impaired through accident or injury and who had the capacity for improvement through extensive rehabilitation. General physical rehabilitation programs began in late 1985, and the hospital opened its traumatic brain injury program in January 1986.
In 1996, ownership of MRC was transferred to University of Missouri Health Care by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. During the past decade, the number of long-term acute care patients at MRC has steadily declined, due in large part to a growing number of competing facilities statewide, Jenkins said.
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
