HOSPITAL RECEIVES GO-AHEAD

Southeast Missouri Hospital has received state approval for a $30 million expansion that will increase the size of the facility by more than 40 percent.

Approval of the three-phase project was received Wednesday at a meeting of the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee in Jefferson City.

The certificate-of-need approval followed an in-depth review by the commission. Projects involving capital expenditures of more than $600,000 must be approved by the nine-member committee.

Speaking on behalf of the hospital at the meeting was Southeast Hospital Administrator James W. Wente.

The keystone of the project is construction of a four-story, 105,000-square-foot clinical services building.

Committee approval, Wente said, culminates for Southeast "a master facilities planning process that began in 1987 and will carry the hospital well into the 21st century. We're pleased to have committee approval to proceed with construction of facilities designed to meet the region's growing and diverse health care needs."

The five-year development plan, to be completed in early 1996, includes three phases.

Phase one: Expansion of the hospital's mechanical building; installation of a 60,000-gallon water reserve system to provide an emergency water supply for the hospital in the event of a natural disaster; construction of a Union Electric substation to meet projected electrical demands of the new construction; and construction of an enclosed, climate-controlled pedestrian corridor linking existing parking structures with the main hospital.

Phase two: Construction of a four-story, 105,00-square-foot clinical services building. This building will be constructed just east of the Harrison Annex.

It will house emergency services; expanded surgery services, including four new operating rooms for cardiothoracic, orthopedic and neurosurgery and expanded outpatient and post-op facilities; expanded radiology services; expanded cardiac catheterization and non-invasive cardiology services; 12 additional intensive care beds; additional laboratory space; and new landing pad and ancillary support services for LifeBeat Air Medical Service.

Phase three: Renovation of vacated emergency and radiology service areas; expansion of the main hospital lobby; expansion of rehabilitation services, GI laboratory and medical records; and construction of additional community education facilities.

Work on the first phase is expected to get under way in late fall or early winter, Wente said. The architect for the project is the Christner Partnership of St. Louis.

A 178-car parking garage under construction now on the western edge of the hospital is slated for completion in early winter. The parking garage was a necessary forerunner to new construction because some parking areas east of the hospital will be eliminated when the clinical services addition is built, Wente said.

In its project review, the state committee noted that expansion is justified based on the increase in demand for a number of hospital services. Over the past three years, Wente said, the hospital has recorded a 24 percent increase in outpatient services; a 21 percent increase in emergency visits; a 16 percent increase in cardiology services; and a 12 percent increase in radiology services.

Demand for clinical laboratory procedures has increased 25 percent over the last three years, with growth in that area expected to increase an estimated 11 percent between 1991 and 1995, largely because of the hospital's growing outreach program with physicians' offices and other regional hospitals.

Growth in these areas, as well as in other hospital services, is expected to continue over the next several years, Wente said.

"Through this project, our goal is to accommodate the growing number of outpatients we serve while continuing to meet the needs of more critically ill inpatients with comprehensive, technologically current service," he said.

By 1995, Southeast will see an estimated 63,000 outpatients annually.

"Each of the areas to be located in the new addition is a core area of the hospital's operation," Wente said. "This building program, however, is more than a building program for Southeast Missouri Hospital or just for Cape Girardeau. We contribute to the Cape Girardeau economy, but our service area is much broader. The hospital is a geographically depended upon institution."

Also in attendance at Wednesday's meeting were Dr. Scot G. Pringle, president of the medical staff at Southeast; Dr. J. Darryl Ramsey, representing the hospital's critical care units; Dr. Craig W. Williams, medical director of radiology; Dr. Paul H. Cordes, medical director of the laboratory; Dr. Michael Kolda, medical director of emergency services; Board of Trustees President Charles L. Hutson and board members Dr. Melvin C. Kasten and Max Stovall; Assistant Administrators Richard Meyer and Karen Hendrickson; Chief Financial Officer Jerry Sanders; and Planning Director Jeffrey Krantz.