Poplar Bluff hospital planning $270 million construction project

A new $270 million medical center planned in Poplar Bluff isn't expected to take patients away from Cape Girardeau's hospitals.

The Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center is seeking state approval to build a new 300-bed facility at the junction of U.S. 60 and 67. The new facility, part of the Eight Points development in Poplar Bluff, is planned to open in early 2014.

Officials at both Southeast Missouri Hospital and Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau say they have good working relationships with physicians in the Poplar Bluff region and expect that to continue after the facility is constructed.

According to the not-for-profit Missouri Hospital Association's Hospital Industry Data Institute, nearly 16 percent of the 25,523 people who live in Butler, Dunklin, Ripley, Stoddard and Wayne counties who received inpatient treatment during the 2009 fiscal year were treated in Cape Girardeau hospitals. Of those, 2,398 were treated at Saint Francis Medical Center and 1,624 were treated at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"We are pleased that Poplar Bluff Regional has embarked on a project that will further enhance the health care infrastructure of Southeast Missouri," said Southeast Missouri Hospital president and CEO Debbie Linnes. "It's important that the residents of Butler County have access to a community hospital with the capabilities to meet many of their health care needs."

Many patients are expected to still travel to Cape Girardeau for specialized services not likely to be offered at the new Poplar Bluff facility, including neurosurgery, neonatology, orthopedics and trauma care.

"Patients choose hospitals based on their relationship with a physician and the physician's experience. A change in referral patterns to a new medical campus will not be a quick process, so Saint Francis does not expect to see much change in referral patterns of patients from the Poplar Bluff area," said Steven C. Bjelich, president and CEO at Saint Francis Medical Center.

Each year, nearly 100 babies are transferred to Saint Francis' Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a service not likely to be duplicated at Poplar Bluff's new regional medical center, Bjelich said.

"There is no doubt this community is deserving of a new medical care facilities," said Greg Carda, CEO at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. He said he is confident the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee will approve his hospital's request, as it has approved all 32 requests it has received in the past four years for relocations and expansions.

A decision is expected during the first quarter of 2011.

The new facility would directly create more than 250 jobs and indirectly create 250 jobs, according to Steve Halter, president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce.

David Silverberg of the Daily American Republic contributed to this report.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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