HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT

Drive past either Cape Girardeau hospital and evidence of development is obvious with construction crews at work.

Less visible, but an equally important development takes place inside the hospitals.

Administrators say the bottom line is providing quality medical care at affordable prices to consumers in the region.

At St. Francis Medical Center President John Fidler said the main development is organization of MedAmerica HealthLink.

The physician-hospital organization includes five hospitals and more than 200 doctors. Both St. Francis and Southeast Missouri Hospital were instrumental in bringing the PHO together.

Southeast administrator James W. Wente said the objective of MedAmerica HealthLink is to improve quality and access to health care, using managed care strategies.

The PHO has also entered a partnership with Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield to offer a managed care insurance product.

Fidler said, "We are also working to recruit additional physicians to the community."

In association with that recruitment effort, the medical center and physicians are building a medical office building on the St. Francis campus.

"We are currently relocating roads and doing some site work to provide improved access to emergency care facilities," Fidler said.

The construction timetable calls for the completion of the five-story, 110,000-square-foot building and a multilevel parking garage by early 1996, weather permitting.

The medical office building will be situated 100 feet east of the hospital's emergency room entrance on a five-acre tract, and might be connected to the medical center by a second-story walkway.

The second floor of the medical center's human performance center is being completed to provide a full continuum of industrial medicine and workers' compensation.

Fidler said the skilled nursing unit has been refurbished. Separate waiting areas for intensive care families and two additional meeting and conference rooms were completed.

St. Francis installed a new $1.76 million heart catheterization lab, which opened for Valentine's Day. The additional lab generated controversy, but St. Francis won state approval for the additional lab.

The physical changes are designed to make hospital space more conducive to patient care.

Southeast is beginning the third phase of a three-part expansion and renovation plan.

The third phase includes remodeling the areas vacated by the emergency and radiology departments, construction of a new lobby and a new restaurant and snack bar.

Kiefner Brothers Construction will begin construction in March.

The parking lot at the corner of Broadway and West End Boulevard is expected to be completed by early April. The 190-car lot will be used as an employee parking area.

The hospital offers a shuttle bus for patients, family members and visitors from parking areas to the building. A second shuttle is scheduled to begin operation in April as construction gets into full swing.

The hospital began the first phase of the project in 1991. The second phase began in 1992 and included construction of the Clinical Services building that now houses emergency, surgery, radiology, CTU, cardiovascular services and the Lifebeat helicopter service.

The Clinical Services building was completed in December. It is the hospital's 12th and largest expansion.

Wente said use of the added space has surpassed expectations.

The hospital celebrated the 10th anniversary of open-heart surgery and the 15th anniversary of the Regional Cancer Center.

"The hospital is very sensitive to the changing health care environment," Wente said.

Southeast is implementing a total quality management program, outcomes measurement and management. Staff members are developing "best practice" guidelines.

"We will continue working with St. Francis and other hospitals on collaborative efforts to better our community," Wente said.