PEOPLE THAT MAKE CAPE GIRARDEAU THRIVE: MEDICAL PROGRESS

Southeast Missouri Hospital's 12th and largest-ever expansion project will be unveiled to the public during an open house Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The massive expansion is impressive from the outside, and equally so on the inside.

The hospital will spend $19 million on its new 105,000-square-foot, four-level Clinical Services Building, largely made possible by the generosity of those who donated money during a successful capital campaign drive.

Two years in the making, the new building will help position Southeast for the future. It will contain a new emergency services area, an expanded surgery department with additional recovery rooms, outpatient and patient waiting rooms, expanded admitting and pre-anesthesia areas, and a flight operations center and heliport for LifeBeat, Southeast's air medical service. Additional parking for 100 vehicles is included.

The first two floors of the building will open immediately while the top two will open in the fall. The third floor will provide space for an expanded clinical-pathology laboratory, expanded cardiovascular services, and a new cardiothoracic unit.

An expansion such as this requires a lot of planning and dedication by many people. We join the region the hospital serves in saluting the hospital staff and the many other people who helped make the project possible.