JOPLIN, MO-A one-mile-wide tornado, which caused almost $3 billion in damage and killed 160 people here on May 22, 2011, also just about destroyed the St. John Mercy Regional Medical Center. The health system has hired St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. to build a new hospital a couple miles away, for $335 million, and with likely a stronger core.
The devastation was so complete at the hospital, where four people died, that some people believe the two-building structure shifted four inches on its axis during the event. McCarthy, which has built and developed properties for the system for years, immediately set up a 60-bed field hospital and is building a temporary modular facility until the new complex can be built.
The new hospital will be erected at Interstate 44 and Main Street, a couple miles away from the current damaged facility, which is slated for demolition. A memorial has been discussed for the site.
Plans for the new facility include up to 309 inpatient beds, surgical rooms, critical care, labor and pediatric floors, behavioral health and rehabilitation. Scott Wittkop, president of McCarthy’s Central Division, tells GlobeSt.com that the new facility has a target completion date of late 2014. “That date isn’t firm yet, we’re still working through the design and construction schedule,” he says.
Wittkop says there have been discussions on how to make the new hospital more tornado-resistant, though he admits it’s still a sensitive topic. “We will look to figure out what to do to make this structure better and stronger,” he says.
The work comes at a better time in the industry, Wittkop says, as construction jobs are starting to pick up for 2012. “We’re seeing some increase in hiring, and a restart in jobs that had been abandoned in 2009,” he says. “We fully expect this year to be better than 2011.”
Mercy officials, which have pledged to keep the more than 2,000 employees on the job following the crisis, have said the system expects to spend up to $950 million in Joplin, with additional plans for more facilities to be announced later. The Mercy Health System includes 30 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
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