St. John's system in middle of six-year master sites plan

Renovations and new construction at St. John's Health System are on time and on budget. With a price tag of about $326 million, the master sites plan called for new construction and remodeling of existing facilities throughout the St. John's Health System network.

The plan is scheduled to take a total of six years, although Vice President of Facilities Bill Syler said there will be other elements that must be looked at again once the plan is complete.

"It's one of those kinds of things that will perpetuate itself out for a long time," Syler said.

Cora Scott, media relations director, called the master sites plan a physical representation of St. John's integrated health system.

"Our physicians are employed by what's called St. John's Clinic, and so we already have that relationship of truly integrated care with physicians and hospital services. This takes it a step further and makes the facilities truly integrated, then you will have like services provided together in a certain area to make things more efficient."

Patients will continue to receive specific care open-heart surgery, pediatric intensive care and neonatal intensive care at the main St. John's campus in Springfield. But the goal of the renovation and new construction throughout the St. John's system, Scott said, is to bring care closer to home so patients won't necessarily need to drive to Springfield.

"We're basically trying to grow accord-ing to the population growth and other indicators throughout the region," Scott said, adding that St. John's draws from a 32-county area, ranging from northern Arkansas to Rolla.

"We're just making sure that our facilities are up to being able to take care of that large number of patients," she said.

Hospital officials hope the changes will transform the way the community sees the hospital as well. "One of the things that we knew of concern going into this was the perception by the public that the facilities were older and didn't quite have the appearance that (patients) wanted to see," Syler said. "This will give us an appearance that positions us to be certainly a top facility from anybody's standpoint. We have always had the technical components even though they weren't so obvious."

St. John's new facilities are not expected to cause a significant increase in employment.

"For the most part it's going to be about even," Scott said. "It's just kind of reconfiguring."

The goals of St. John's Health System have kept other industries busy along the way.

"There's a tremendous amount of money that has gone back into the local economy because of this construction," Syler said. "A vast majority of our contractors and subcontractors are local."

In addition, the electrical, mechanical plumbing, drywall, flooring and concrete contractors have been local.

While many local businesses have been involved, one firm involved from outside of the area is Christner Inc., based in St. Louis.

"Christner is one of the really renowned master planners in the country," Syler said. "When we went into this we wanted to go with someone who could help us create a vision that really provided for health care, not only today and five years from now but very long-term."

Much of the planning has been cooperative, Syler said.

"Jerry Thompson, Stephanie Ireland and Christner are all working together on the oncology plan for the Mid-American Cancer Center and for the oncologists' offices, and the new construction to tie the two buildings together," he added.

Most of the general contracting has been through DeWitt/Dunn, A Joint Venture, a joint project between Springfield-based DeWitt & Associates Inc. and Kansas City-based J.E. Dunn Construction. Also working on the projects have been Dan Packard and Alter Audi as structural engineers, and civil engineers Mathews and Associates and Great River. Syler said that C & R, a St. Louis firm, has done a significant amount of mechanical engineering.

Syler added that some types of medical equipment, such as for the cardiac cath lab, are not manufactured locally, making it necessary to seek businesses outside of the area.

Recently completed projects include the ambulatory surgery center, a 1,000-space parking garage, an energy center, the center for women and a convent which houses three sisters.

The ambulatory care center is opening in stages over 2 1/2 months, with orthopedics and the optical shop already moved in, and ophthalmology moving in September.

A new ambulatory surgery center opened Aug. 15 at St. John's-Cassville. "We're still in the building planning process for the other clinical areas within that building," Syler said.

Two of the most significant changes to St. John's facilities include the inpatient tower, and the outpatient diagnostic center and emergency trauma center. The inpatient tower will put a "new front on the current building and will have larger, state-of-the art patient rooms," Scott said, adding that the total number of beds will stay about the same. "It's going to look dramatically different."

The outpatient diagnostic center and emergency trauma center, housed in one building, is in progress on the north side of the main St. John's building. Set to open in 2004, the emergency trauma center will replace the current emergency room, which was built to treat roughly 50,000 patients each year but now sees about 85,000. The first-floor emergency trauma center is the first phase of this project, and the second phase will include the outpatient diagnostic center built on top of the emergency trauma center.

Major electrical systems are being put in place underground as well. "What we have today has been somewhat vulnerable to adverse weather and other conditions," Syler said. "We're trying to upgrade our electrical as well (and we're) working with City Utilities to do that."

Landscaping and a loop road along the main Springfield campus also are in progress.

The hospital plans to break ground this fall for the new Nixa "super clinic." A new child development center on Seminole Street should be complete in 2005, replacing both the current child development center at 1831 S. Fremont Ave. and a leased facility for pre-kindergarten at 3540 S. Culpepper Ave.

Details are not yet available on the new behavioral health building, expansion at Smith-Glynn Calloway Clinic and additions to both the Hammons Heart Institute and the sports medicine center.

Projects also are in the planning stages for the Aurora and Mountain View facilities.