St. Mary's announces plans for new hospital
St. Mary's Health Center, which seven months ago abandoned plans to build a new $248 million hospital, announced Wednesday it will move forward with a slimmed-down version of the original project.
St. Mary's parent company, SSM Health Care, has approved $200 million in funding for a new hospital on the planned site near Missouri 179 in Jefferson City.
In the standing-room-only press conference, Brent VanConia, St. Mary's Health Center president, said SSM signed off on the construction of a 167-bed hospital, east of 179.
In a news release St. Mary's officials said, a letter of intent was delivered to the state's Certificate of Need Program, which governs health care planning across the state and will follow-up with a formal application in March.
VanConia said the new facility will be 40 percent larger than the current St. Mary's.
“The new hospital will bring the latest in medical advancements to the heart of Mid-Missouri,” he said. “It will create an improved healing environment.”
Bill Schoenhard, executive vice president and chief operating officer of SSM, said a bond issue proposed later this year will help provide financing for most of the $200 million.
Even after SSM announced it wouldn't fund the proposed hospital in Jefferson City, talks about how to improve the current site and when a hospital would be feasible continued, Schoenhard said.
“There was never a question of whether a new hospital was needed or not,” he added. “It was just getting it to a more realistic plan.”
The size of the hospital has been modified, as the original plans called for a new St. Mary's to have more than 190 beds.
Schoenhard said the adjustment to the number of patient rooms was “essentially the only changes that were made.
“It will still be a much larger facility than the current facility,” he added.
VanConia said the next several months will be spent meeting with architects to develop a site plan. It's expected that excavation of the area will begin in 2009, pending the construction of an intersection at the site.
The construction of the hospital should begin in 2010 and is projected to be completed in 2012, Van Conia said.
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