Hospital expansion plans moving ahead

COLUMBIA — What was once a grassy expanse along the east side of Monk Drive is now a field of dirt frequented by construction equipment. In one year, this site will house a new parking garage as part of MU Health Care’s facilities expansion.

The expansion is the first of three phases to update and expand on the 50-year-old University Hospital facilities. The first phase includes improvements to roads and electricity; water; sewer and steam power lines; the completion of the parking garage; an orthopedic institute; a patient care tower; renovations to the Children’s Hospital; and the relocation of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, according to MU Health Care.

The patient care tower will add approximately 70 private rooms, said Mary Jenkins, public relations manager for MU Health Care. Private rooms, she said, are a big factor in increasing patient satisfaction.

Of the 2,000 spaces in the parking garage, half will be reserved for patients and visitors, while faculty, staff, and students at the university will be able to use the other half.

The orthopedic institute, which will break ground this July, will be located south of the parking garage on Monk Drive. According to the hospital’s annual report, the building will hold five operating rooms, orthopedic clinics, an MRI, two radiology rooms, 18 inpatient beds and a pharmacy.

In addition to these new structures, the $220 million Phase 1 expansion includes renovations of floors six and seven of the main building on 1 Hospital Drive, which houses Children’s Hospital.

“When you come into what is now the hospital lobby, you’d see an identifiable entrance,” Jenkins said.

The Children’s Hospital, which lacks a first-floor entrance, will have elevators that go directly to the sixth and seventh floor for patient use. According to the annual report, all of the rooms at the Children’s Hospital will be converted to single rooms to give patients and their families more privacy. Also, a pediatric intensive care unit will be located in the patient care tower, which will also house Ellis Fischel along with more surgery rooms.

Ellis Fischel, located off Business Loop 70, currently only offers outpatient services at its 68-year-old building, while its inpatient facilities are located at University Hospital. The expansion will consolidate both inpatient and outpatient services by moving the cancer center to the patient care tower.

Although the building itself is structurally sound, MU Health Care is choosing not to make renovations and is unsure what the Ellis Fischel building might be used for in the future.

This update of Ellis Fischel will mirror changes to the University Hospital’s existing facilities. These changes, which will occur in Phase 2 and Phase 3, will gradually replace the current hospital’s old equipment and space. These two phases are estimated to cost $150 million to $200 million each.

“In Phase 2, we would need additional rooms for patients, radiology and diagnostic imaging and surgery,” Clarissa Easton said.

Easton, the chief facilities officer for MU Health Care, has been one of many people heading the hospital’s “horizontal expansion. This means that the hospital’s facilities, by acquiring more services and new clinics and centers, will continue to expand under the same umbrella.

“For example, floor two of the new patient tower is part Ellis and part an expansion of our diagnostic imaging for the existing University Hospital,” Easton said.

Although Phase 2 addresses more pressing issues in space and services, Phase 3 will gradually be updating the current University Hospital through primary elements like cardiac care, trauma and the emergency room with newer facilities.

“We’re hoping we’ll be expanding to the east and south,” Easton said. "It’ll clearly require demolition of the existing patient garage.”

In addition to tearing down the existing garage, MU Health Care is also looking at older residence halls adjacent to the hospital facilities that might provide space to extend the medical campus. The Missourian previously reported that Cramer and Stafford residence halls might be removed.

Easton said MU Health Care administration has been looking at these options with Frankie Minor, director of MU residential life, because the residential life office is in the process of renovating and building new campus living facilities.

Although Easton is not sure if the hospital will need this real estate for its expansion, these properties, she says, are still a possibility.

Despite the renovations and expansion, MU Health Care has not forgotten its primary goal is to care for its patients. Although Easton is unsure how the hospital will shift beds or relocate departments to different areas in the hospital complex, she maintains that MU Health Care will continue to provide the same services during construction.

“We will bend over backwards to meet quality environmental care for our patients,” she said.