Overheard

Missouri State University’s Board of Governors has approved $59.4 million in bonds to help finance construction of the school’s 11,000-seat JQH Arena. As part of his $30 million commitment to the arena, hotelier John Q. Hammons will pay nearly half of each payment made on the bonds, in addition to a $1 million cash gift. The arena is being built on the parking lot east of Hammons Student Center on the Springfield campus. Construction began in December and is expected to be finished by November 2008, in time for MSU’s 2008-2009 basketball season. Features include 22 private suites, more than 100 loge seats, 55 courtside seats, the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, team souvenir store and ticket office.

A number of area businesses also have committed gifts for the arena, most recently Price Cutter, which will sponsor the arena’s east concourse and the Hall of Fame, and St. John’s Health System, which will sponsor the arena’s south concourse. Other donors include Bill R. Foster and the Foster Family Foundation, which will sponsor the University Suite; Tom Strong with The Strong Law Firm and the Strong family, who will help fund the arena’s Grand Entrance; Prime Inc., which gave $1 million for the facility’s Prime Overtime Club; and Great Southern Bank, which gifted between $1.5 million and $1.8 million to purchase a video scoreboard.

Helping Hispanic Businesses

The Missouri Hispanic Business, Trade and Culture Commission has launched a Web site that highlights trade and investment issues relevant to the state’s Hispanic business community. The site, www.hbtcc.ded.mo.gov, works as a communication tool for the commission, which is a statewide advisory board created in 2005 to work directly with Hispanic businesses, monitor and recommend legislative issues relating to Hispanic businesses and submit recommendations about business development issues pertinent to Hispanics. The commission also helps identify and facilitate investment opportunities for companies of Hispanic origin. Between 1990 and 2000, the Hispanic population in Missouri increased 92 percent, according to the Department of Economic Development. The commission can have up to 15 members but currently has 12, including a Springfield representative: Crista Hogan, executive director of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association.

CoxHealth’s ER Savings

On April 2, CoxHealth returned its north urgent care facility to its former status as an emergency room, a move that could save the Springfield health system $2.5 million. The ER became a 24-hour Urgent Care Center in July when CoxHealth’s north campus medical-surgical services, including inpatient beds, were relocated as part of the health system’s redevelopment plan for that campus. State regulations would have required Cox North to maintain its medical-surgical inpatient beds to qualify as an ER, according to a CoxHealth news release. Since the switch, however, the hospital has monitored patient traffic and demand for 24-hour services at the north campus and has concluded that changing it back to an ER would improve patient services and save money in reimbursements. Continued billing at urgent-care rates would create an estimated loss of $6.2 million, compared to an estimated loss of $3.7 million an ER, according CoxHealth.