BLUFF'S LUCY LEE HOSPITAL GETS OK FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER

POPLAR BLUFF -- A new women's health center at Lucy Lee Healthcare Systems should be finished by 2000.

The hospital got the go-ahead Monday from the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee, which granted a certificate of need to build the $5.5 million center.

"We're very excited," said Alice Inman, the assistant director of nursing who is coordinating the project.

The center will include a labor, delivery and recovery unit so women can go through the birthing process all in one place "so they don't have to be wheeled from delivery to recovery," said Kevin Dillon, a spokesman for the hospital.

The labor, delivery, recovery unit will have the capacity for C-section deliveries and will include a new postpartum and gynecology section, Inman said.

The center will be built at the front of the hospital where the helipad now stands and will tie into the existing pediatrics unit to provide comprehensive maternal and child care, she said.

Inman said the hospital is putting a new emphasis on preventive health care and women's health education and will provide a variety of programs and services.

"We don't have all that lined out yet, but we anticipate expanding our role in that area as the new center opens," she said.

The new women's health center "will be a primary focus for us," Inman said.

She said the hospital is delivering more babies.

"We have experienced an immense interest from the community. We have increased (obstetrics) census. We did over 1,000 births in 1997, and I anticipate finishing this year with over 1,200, and we see that as continuing to grow," Inman said.

Women's health is a new area of emphasis in medicine, she said.

"If you think about it, who makes the health-care decisions in the family?" Inman said. "And if a woman is comfortable with her health care, she's going to be more comfortable with the health care that is provided for her loved ones."