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Issue: 1133 Date: 5/10/2012
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BJC poised for more expansion in St. Louis
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ST. LOUIS - Construction cranes will soon rise again along Kingshighway, where BJC HealthCare is about to launch another building spree.
An expansion of St. Louis Children's Hospital and a replacement for Queeny Tower are near-term projects that are part of a years-long undertaking to remake, yet again, the Central West End campus, a bustling 16-block area with a daytime population of more than 20,000 people.
Over the past dozen years, about $1 billion has been spent on building renovations and construction. The big projects included the Siteman Cancer Center, the BioMed 21 research center and the just-completed building at Euclid and Forest Park avenues for outpatient services and BJC offices.
After a short breather, BJC is about to alter the Central West End skyline once more. Two years of planning and help from three international design teams that answered "requests for inspiration" have BJC ready to select, in July, an "executive architect" to work with Gilbane Building Co., the expansion program's manager.
Steven Lipstein, BJC's president and chief executive, said the intent is to keep the Washington University Medical Center at the forefront of patient care, medical education and research. The center draws patients from the region and nationwide for specialized care, he noted.
"We want to keep giving people a reason to come to the city of St. Louis for medical care," Lipstein said. "We want to keep giving people a reason to come to the city of St. Louis to work."
The initial focus of the transformation is to consolidate obstetrics and gynecological services on the north side of the busy campus. Expanded heart and vascular programs, neurology and neurosurgery programs, transplant, critical care, medical and surgical services will consolidate on the south side.
Early in the plan is demolition of the Shoenberg School of Nursing to make way for an expansion of the adjacent St. Louis Children's Hospital. Work on that project could begin next year, officials said.
The second phase includes replacement of the 19-story Queeny Tower, which has housed patients since its construction in the 1960s. BJC plans to replace Queeny as part of the plan to reconfigure existing buildings and erect new structures to provide more private patient rooms.
By 2020, the campus will have 1,728 patient beds - about 200 more than it has now. About 80 percent of the patients will have private rooms, mostly as the result of conversion of existing semi-private rooms. Overall, the plan calls for construction of 1.5 million square feet of building space and renovation of 266,000 square feet of space.
BJC HealthCare is one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States, delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions. With net revenue of $3.2 billion, BJC serves urban, suburban and rural communities and includes 13 hospitals and multiple community health locations. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice. |
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