Texas County Memorial Hospital showcased the largest expansion in the hospital’s 55-year history to the public Thursday.
CEO Wes Murray and others with significant roles in the project spoke to a large crowd gathered on the parking lot in front of the new facility. After a formal ribbon cutting, hospital employees hosted a tour of the building.
Before the ceremony, TCMH hosted members of the Missouri Free Masons in a Masonic cornerstone laying ceremony on the east corner of the new construction. Members of the Masonic Lodges of Texas County purchased the cornerstone, and John Broyles, deputy grand master of the Missouri Free Masons, will preside.
The expansion features two floors of new patient care areas. The ground floor houses a 13-bed emergency department, a radiology suite and an expanded registration area. The second floor features a 32-bed medical surgical floor with private patient rooms. Additional renovation and remodeling will be done inside the hospital’s current structure as departments are moved to the new structure.
To fund the expansion, TCMH received an $18.1 million, low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 59,000 square foot expansion was funded with $16.9 million, and the second phase of renovation was funded by $1.2 million in loan funds.
Construction of the new facility began in fall 2011. TCMH will take ownership of the first floor of the expansion before the grand opening, but the hospital will not begin to use the new construction for patient care until after the grand opening.
Final work on the second floor of the new construction will continue to be in progress through mid-June, but visitors during the grand opening will be able to tour the second floor, too. A small portion of the second floor, including patient rooms, will be open for touring on May 16.
“We chose to hold our grand opening in between moving into the first and second floors so our community would have the opportunity to take a good look inside the new emergency and radiology departments as well as the new medical surgical floor,” Murray said.
Related renovation is beginning inside the current hospital. When the affected departments vacate their current spaces to move to the new construction, renovation to create more space for many different TCMH departments will begin in earnest. The renovation portion should be completed by September.