With major expansion projects on the horizon, St. Mary’s and Deaconess health systems have sights firmly fixed on growth in 2017.
St. Mary’s Health System* has partned with Tri-State Orthopaedics to construct a $95-million, 135,000-square-foot specialty hospital to provide bone and joint care. Construction is set to begin in the spring at the northwest corner of Warrick Wellness Trail and Epworth Road in Newburgh, Indiana, according to St. Mary’s spokesman Randall Capehart.
“We are seeing a growing demand across the continuum for this kind of surgery,” says St. Mary’s President Keith Jewell (Jewell will vacate his position Feb. 28). “It’s expected to grow another 24 percent over the next few years, so this gives us the opportunity to create a specialty hospital dedicated to providing the highest quality of care at the lowest cost.”
In the last few years, St. Mary’s, which was founded in 1872, has added physicians and locations. Northside Crossing, 14020 Old State Road, is set to open this spring with space for 10 physicians, physical therapy, a retail pharmacy, and an urgent care.
“We know people are choosing a primary care physician based on location,” says Jewell. “They don’t want to drive more than 10 to 12 minutes, so we created a strategy to hire more doctors and grow more sites of service.”
Next year, Deaconess — celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2017 — will open a $135-million orthopedic and neuroscience hospital on the north side of Newburgh’s Deaconess Gateway campus. The 215,000-square-foot, six-story tower will provide care for orthopedic and neuroscience patients. The expansion also includes a building for additional physician offices, an attached parking garage, and an enhanced energy center to service the entire campus, according to Lynn Lingafelter, Deaconess’s vice president of operations.
“Deaconess has grown so much that we have run out of physician office spaces,” says Lingafelter. “Yet we continue to see demand for more physicians in primary and specialty care. So this new tower makes perfect sense.”
Deaconess is one of 16 hospitals nationwide to join MD Anderson Cancer Network — a program of MD Anderson Cancer Center, the world’s No. 1 cancer treatment center in Houston, Texas.
Jared Florence, Deaconess’s vice president of business development, says this partnership allows cancer patients to stay close to home without sacrificing the latest advancements in care, including clinical trials.
“This is a fantastic program, and it’s not just about bringing the name here or co-branding,” says Florence. “They came here, reviewed our services, our physicians, our care pathways, and made sure what we were doing was up to the standards of MD Anderson.”
Deaconess’s Linda E. White Hospice House — named after the Deaconess president and CEO of 15 years who will retire on June 30, 2017 — opened in early January. Located on the Deaconess Hospital campus on Harriet Street, the $10-million facility has seven patient suites, each with visitor seating and an adjoining family area with two beds, a private bathroom, and a private patio to provide end-of-life care.
“Not every terminally ill patient has a support system,” says White. “So what we’ve done is offer that support system and all the amenities that make this a truly comfortable space.”
*As part of its integration with Ascension Health, St. Mary’s will adopt the St. Vincent name beginning April 20, 2017.
For more information about Deaconess Health System, visit deaconess.com. For more information about St. Mary’s Health System, visit stmarys.org.
