St. John’s continues 10–year master plan

The health-care system reaches into virtually every southwest Missouri community with its 135 facilities and mobile units, in addition to its hospital campuses in Springfield, Lebanon, Mountain View, Aurora and Cassville.

Another 13 units span northern Arkansas.

With approximately 9,800 employees, St. John’s payroll in 2005 exceeded $567 million, which included $100 million in benefits alone, according to CEO and President Kim Day. Net revenues for that year were more than $1.2 billion.

And St. John’s has no intention of stagnating, as its numbers increase by the day.

The area’s aging and growing population is creating a demand for health care never before seen in the region, and St. John’s, like its fellow health care providers, is adding facilities, employees and services to keep up.

“When we look at our last year we’ve had a significant amount of focus on service, clinical quality and patient safety,” Day said.

Ongoing construction projects include a new inpatient tower, which began earlier this year.

The 310,000-square-foot, $101 million tower at the system’s main campus is expected to be completed in November 2007.

That’s just one of many projects under way and projected during the final five years of the system’s 10-year master plan.

St. John’s expects to spend about $600 million in capital improvements on the plan.

Included are a new cancer center, scheduled to open in March, and a $9 million expansion to St. John’s Lebanon facilities.

The system already has completed an ambulatory surgery center, a new emergency room and a new coronary care unit, among a handful of other developments.

Also new to St. John’s are a number of technological improvements.

The system recently added a 64-slice CT scanner, which minimizes the number of invasive heart diagnoses, and a CyberKnife, a radiosurgical piece of equipment used for treatment of brain and spine tumors.

But playing such a role in the community doesn’t come without its challenges.

Day said the rising costs of health-care equipment and cuts to Medicaid reimbursements pose financial problems, as does keeping up with continued advances in technology.

Creating new jobs has a positive effect on the economy, Day said, but finding qualified health care workers to fill those positions is difficult.

The system currently is focusing on attracting more students to its nursing college and retaining more graduates locally.

To cut costs, St. John’s plans to implement new clinical information systems in the next five years, as well.

“Our goal is to implement a single patient record across all our facilities,” Day said. “It makes for a safer environment, a less costly environment and a much more effective way to provide care.”

St. John's Health System

Address: 1235 E. Cherokee St.,

Springfield, MO 65804

Phone: (417) 820-6999

Web site: www.stjohns.com

2005 net revenues: $1.2 billion

2005 payroll: $567 million[[In-content Ad]]