A proposed $26.3 million building would house offices and records.
MU Health Care and the MU School of Medicine are combining money and efforts to construct a $26.3 million building that would provide both with much-needed space.
The Clinical Support and Education Building is expected to be built on the west side of the existing hospital and medical school complex, according to documents prepared for a meeting Thursday of the UM System Board of Curators.
Mary Jenkins, spokesperson for MU Health Care, said the project will be paid for through a combination of revenue bonds and MU Health Care’s general operating funds.
The building will have a large array of purposes, Jenkins said, beginning with a need high on the medical school’s list of priorities: “It will provide new office space for clinical support.”
Since 2003, the school has worked hard to recruit new faculty. It has already appointed and hired 11 new chairs and directors, and Jenkins said the school anticipates recruiting 75 more faculty members. The documents add that with current facilities, there is no office space to accommodate this growth.
MU Health Care is also in need of space. Since the 1980s, it has housed medical records in modular buildings. These were only expected to last for 10 years, but they are still being used.
“We’ve wanted to replace those for years,” Dennis Cesari, associate vice president of management services for UM System , said at Thursday’s meeting.
Jenkins said the new building will offer a permanent location for the medical records.
Hospital personnel will also benefit. According to the documents, a whole floor of the building will house hospital staff offices.
“It will free space in the hospital for clinical operations,” Jenkins said.
Because of the building’s location, there will also be increased accessibility between University Hospital, the medical school and the Health Sciences Library.
Jenkins said the building will allow departments that are currently far apart on the MU campus to be closer.
The building will also be home to a clinical simulation center and standardized patient laboratory, according to the documents. The center will train medical students by using electronically controlled mannequins while the lab will give students a chance to learn by using mock patients.
The curators voted Thursday to table a measure that would have assigned a design team for the project. Board President Thomas Atkins was worried that management services had not found the most economical consultant fee possible.
“We want to make sure they have gotten a fair and reasonable price,” Atkins said.
According to the documents, had the measure not been tabled, a design would have been ready in October, with construction to begin March 2006 and end December 2007. Because of the board’s motion, plans for the building will be delayed by at least two months.