A new 25-bed hospital is being built in southwest Missouri’s Monett. Darren Bass, president of Cox Monett Hospital, says construction is underway on the future 75,000 square foot hospital to replace the existing one.
Renderings courtesy of Cox Monett Hospital
“The problem we’ve been coming into is this is an older design. It’s the Hill-Burton era,” says Bass. “A lot of these older hospitals look very similar – very inefficient in today’s world.”
He says exciting probabilities could happen at the current site but was not able to disclose more information.
Bass says the same kind of care will be given at the new hospital.
“We still have our inpatient unit. We have our labor and delivery unit,” says Bass. “We have our emergency department. We have outpatient surgery. We have our clinic visits. I’m hoping to add full-time orthopedics and a full-time GYN presence.”
He says the new hospital will include more focus on outpatient services, including surgery, intervention, radiology and lab work. If a bump in patient volume is sustained at the new hospital, Bass says jobs could be added.
The future location will also have a designated helipad for air emergency services – a step forward from the current site’s helipad in the emergency room parking lot.
“It’s those little things that absolutely make a huge, huge difference. Minutes matter when we’re talk about flying patients out of our hospital,” says Bass.
Several rural Missouri hospitals have closed in recent years, but Bass says having access to healthcare is critical.
“If hospitals disappear in rural America, not only is the health of the community adverse, it can lead to deaths. We’ve got to stay relevant. We’ve got to stay purposeful,” he says.
Bass says the 75,000 square foot hospital project is running on schedule.
“We’re still on track for a ribbon cutting Thanksgiving 2020 and we’re planning our transition early 2021,” says Bass.
The new hospital will also be connected to a 30,000 square foot medical office building.
Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet
