HEALTHY GAINS: HOSPITALS GROW TO SERVE PATIENTS

The last decade was a period of rapid expansion for both of Cape Girardeau's hospitals, Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center.

Southeast changes

Southeast completed its largest addition ever, the $19 million Clinical Services Building, in 1994.

In 1996, the hospital put the final touches on a new lobby wing, which includes the 72-by-11-foot History of Medicine Mural, depicting some of the personalities who have advanced the world's understanding of medicine, such as Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk.

In the 1990s, Southeast opened the School of Nursing and the Generations Family Resource Center, and completed a 178-vehicle parking garage and the Southeast Rehabilitation Services facility.

Construction has begun for a $4.3 million conversion of the Elrod Center to a birthing center containing labor, delivery and postpartum resources. Scheduled to open next year, the renovated Elrod Center will feature 15 private suites, a triage area, a nursery, a neonatal intensive-care unit and two operating suites for Caesarean sections to be performed.

Throughout the last 10 years, Southeast has sought to incorporate the latest innovations in its medical repertoire. Last year, the hospital announced it would implement two revolutionary techniques one to treat a common heart ailment, and the other to improve the removal of brain tumors.

In October, the hospital announced the addition of endovascular AAA repair to the Regional Heart Center's list of services, becoming the first hospital in the area to offer the technique. The procedure uses a stent graft to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms, which are abnormal swellings of an artery that supplies blood to the lower body -- a potentially lethal condition that is the 13th leading cause of death in the United States.

In November, the hospital announced the implementation of a wireless image-guided surgery system to eliminate the cumbersome cables attached to surgical instruments during brain surgery. This state-of-the-art technology, known as VectorVision, provides neurosurgeons greater range of motion, which can mean more precise surgery.

"None of the accomplishments of the past 10 years would have been possible without our employees, medical staff, board of trustees, volunteers, foundation members and association members," said James Wente, administrator of the hospital.

At St. Francis

Over the last decade, construction crews have also been hard at work expanding the St. Francis Medical Center campus.

In the early 1990s, St. Francis opened the Neurosciences Institute and a 3,600-square-foot Outpatient Diagnostic Service wing. Also, the hospital established The Heart Institute and began offering open-heart surgery.

In 1996, St. Francis opened the Diabetes Center. The following year, the hospital renovated its Emergency Services area and opened the Healing Arts Center physician office building, the Healing Arts Pharmacy and the Garden View Deli.

The year 2000 marked St. Francis's 125th anniversary, and the hospital celebrated by expanding its chapel and cafeteria, and by adding a historical wall mural to its Healing Garden.

The biggest event last year, however, was the announcement that the hospital will reinstitute maternity services in a new obstetrics unit that is being built.

This $800,000 obstetrics unit -- expected to open next fall -- will sit on the second floor of the existing Thomas G. Otto Pavilion and will feature five private suites containing all the necessary resources to see expectant mothers through the entire birthing process.

St. Francis delivered babies from 1925 until 1966, and did away with its obstetrics services shortly before moving to its current campus in west Cape Girardeau.

"St. Francis Medical Center has been here for 125 years," St. Francis president Steven Bjelich said. "We've served our community and region well."

Bjelich said the hospital will continue to expand its services throughout the region and offer patients and communities a choice.

He said, "Our future is to focus on the future."

Last year, Southeast Hospital severed a two-year partnership with St. Francis, which shared the resources of a group of six hospitalists. Hospitalists are internal medicine subspecialists who focus on the chronic illnesses of hospitalized patients. Southeast announced it would found its own, independent hospitalist program. St. Francis announced it would assume the full costs of the existing program -- six physicians' salaries equaling a base expense of $1 million annually.

AT A GLANCE

Southeast

Number of patients 1990 (inpatient and outpatient): 57,341

Number of patients 2000: 86,361

Number of physicians 1990: 132

Number of physicians 2000: 186

St. Francis

Number of patients 1990 (inpatient and outpatient): 56,895

Number of patients 2000: 81,571

Number of physicians 1990: 164

Number of physicians 2000: 228

Sources: Southeast Missouri Hospital, St. Francis Medical Center