Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center Archives

Legislative panel approves a planned $25 million hospital in southeast Missouri (Update)

September 15, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

New hospital site plan from certificate of need proposal

A proposed new hospital project in Kennett cleared a major hurdle Monday in Jefferson City. The Missouri Facilities Review Committee approved a certificate of need application on the proposed 49-bed acute care full-service hospital by Mainstreet HealthVentures.

Mainstreet HealthVentures consultant Kerry Noble told Missourinet affiliate KBOA that the construction could set an example.

“I think it will be a showplace for smaller rural hospitals who are trying to work out of old, antiquated, outdated facilities to use as a model,” Noble said.

The Georgia-based company submitted a 62-page certificate of need application for the project. They plan to demolish the former Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center, which closed in 2018.

The hospital will open on May 1, 2022, according to the plan. It will be about 70,000 square feet. There would be 37 adult acute beds, six pediatric acute beds, and six intensive care unit beds.

Plans also call for a 24-hour emergency room with seven beds and an urgent care clinic for non-emergency patients. The new hospital will also include a four-room inpatient/outpatient surgical suite, with a surgical recovery unit. It also will have a 24-hour clinical lab and 24-hour medical imaging, including CT and MRI.

State lawmakers from across southeast Missouri have written letters supporting the planned new hospital. State Rep. Herman Morse, R-Dexter, the House Special Committee on Aging’s vice chairman, notes Kennett has a large elderly population.

“That hospital (Twin Rivers) was the only hospital that was actually in Dunklin County. The other closest places are Paragould, Arkansas or Piggott, Arkansas, which is an 18-bed facility I believe,” Morse says.

Kennett residents now have to drive to Arkansas, Cape Girardeau, Sikeston or Poplar Bluff for emergency room care and for hospitalization. Supporters of the new hospital say it will help about 70,000 residents across southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

Representative Morse, whose wife graduated from Kennett High School, tells Missourinet that Dunklin County must have a functioning hospital. He says Paragould, Jonesboro, Hayti and and Poplar Bluff are too far from Kennett, in an emergency.

“Jonesboro is almost 50 miles from Kennett. And so, it’s just difficult, and I think there would be lives lost in just not having the hospital that close,” says Morse.

State Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, and State Reps. Andrew McDaniel, R-Deering and Dale Wright, R-Farmington, have also written letters in support of the new hospital plan.

Kennett is located in the Bootheel, the state’s poorest region. There have been five hospital closings in southeast Missouri since 2014, including Kennett.

Noble, also a former chief executive officer at the Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, said building a brand-new facility is best for safety code requirements.

Kennett Mayor Chancellor Wayne also backs the new hospital plan, describing it as a big step forward for health care in Kennett and southeast Missouri.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full four-minute interview with State Rep. Herman Morse, R-Dexter, about the planned $25 million hospital project in southeast Missouri’s Kennett on August 12, 2020:

Company announces plans to re-open hospital in Missouri’s poorest region

May 14, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

(Reporter Monte Lyons at Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA contributed to this story)

A Georgia-based company announced Thursday that it plans to renovate and re-open a hospital in southeast Missouri’s Kennett, a hospital that’s been closed since 2018.

Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in southeast Missouri’s Kennett closed in 2018 (May 14, 2020 photo courtesy of Jim Grebing at Kennett Economic Development)

Kennett has about 10,000 residents.

Kennett Mayor Chancellor Wayne held a news conference this morning in the Bootheel town, joined by other town and business leaders. The mayor notes Main Street HealthVentures is a Billionaires Fund Group affiliate, and that the company will work with the city and local banks to renovate the former Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center, which closed in 2018.

“The city of Kennett is in full favor of the endeavors that the Billionaires Funding Group has shown to us,” Mayor Wayne tells reporters.

Consultant Kerry Noble, a former chief executive officer at the Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, tells Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA (AM 1540) that Main Street is requesting licensure for a 49-bed full-service facility.

“A key component will also be a cardiac outpatient program, in conjunction with the hospital, so we plan to bring all services back to this location,” Noble says.

KBOA reports work is expected to begin this summer, and will take about 12 to 18 months to finish.

Nine of the state’s ten poorest counties are in southeast Missouri, and the Bootheel is the state’s poorest region.

The state Hospital Association (MHA) says ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed since 2014, and five of those happened in the southeast Missouri district of U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem.

During a February interview with Missourinet, Smith described those hospital closings as unacceptable, saying people die when hospitals close. Congressman Smith also notes that rural hospital closures are associated with an increase in an area’s mortality rate.

Bootheel residents are praising the announcement from Main Street HealthVentures. Kennett residents have had to drive to Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Arkansas for emergency room care and for hospitalization. The area has a large elderly population, and some of them don’t have vehicles.

Mr. Noble is excited about the hospital’s return.

“This is our opportunity to bring this facility back under the direction of the local citizens of Kennett. It will no longer be controlled by outside interests,” says Noble.

While Mayor Wayne describes the announcement as a big step forward for health care in Kennett and southeast Missouri, he says more is needed.

“We’re going to need support from the citizens of Kennett, from our (state) Legislature, our senators (U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley), our representatives, to get everything done,” Wayne says.

Supporters say the development will impact about 70,000 residents across southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

The Kennett Chamber of Commerce website says the town currently has a primary care clinic, and also the St. Bernard’s Urgent Care.