Medical center officials say that the outpatient need has grown in the region, and that the hospital's surgery rooms are overcrowded. The center is just about halfway between St. Louis and Springfield. To aid construction, the development company was able to cut expensive inpatient costs, says Todd Bryant, president and managing member of Healthcare Development. "The way we constructed the new office building, it has an inpatient rating because they can be taken through a connected pedestrian walkway to do procedures such as MRIs and diagnostic work," he says. "The rest of the building, however, is for outpatient, so there's a real cost efficiency."
The first three floors will house the surgery center, while the top three floors will have doctor offices. "We wanted to expand services. This building has brought in a number of new physicians who were not in the community," Bryant tells GlobeSt.com.
Bryant says this year has been a record for healthcare construction. "It's been a healthy season so far," he says. "Everyone's doing something, it's about branding. There's a lot of clients building 50,000 sf to 80,000 sf satellite buildings for outpatients and physician mixes. We're still doing on campus work, like the Phelps building, but it's also very healthy for freestanding outpatient buildings."
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