Medical center officials say that the outpatient need has grownin the region, and that the hospital's surgery rooms areovercrowded. The center is just about halfway between St. Louis andSpringfield. To aid construction, the development company was ableto cut expensive inpatient costs, says Todd Bryant, president andmanaging member of Healthcare Development. "The way we constructedthe new office building, it has an inpatient rating because theycan be taken through a connected pedestrian walkway to doprocedures such as MRIs and diagnostic work," he says. "The rest ofthe building, however, is for outpatient, so there's a real costefficiency."

The first three floors will house the surgery center, while thetop three floors will have doctor offices. "We wanted to expandservices. This building has brought in a number of new physicianswho were not in the community," Bryant tells GlobeSt.com.

Bryant says this year has been a record for healthcareconstruction. "It's been a healthy season so far," he says."Everyone's doing something, it's about branding. There's a lot ofclients building 50,000 sf to 80,000 sf satellite buildings foroutpatients and physician mixes. We're still doing on campus work,like the Phelps building, but it's also very healthy forfreestanding outpatient buildings."