John’s, Mercy made a promise to the community that the replacement hospital would be completed by the first quarter of 2015, before the fourth anniversary of the storm. Once it was decided to start from scratch on land a few miles away from the old St. “It was probably a month or two into assessment before we came to the conclusion that it’s going to cost more to salvage this building and rebuild it than to find a new piece of property and build a new facility,” Farnen says. This assessment team, which also included structural, mechanical/electrical, and environmental engineers, went through the building and weighed the options. Inc., which had worked with Mercy on previous projects and were called upon to help assess the damage. It was later replaced by a prefabricated hospital that allowed Mercy to get through the winter before moving into a modular hospital that opened in early 2012.īut while all of this was happening, Mercy still needed a permanent solution.įarnen was joined by partners at HKS Inc. With that immediate need all too apparent, within one week Mercy erected a tent hospital near the existing site. Mercy set up a triage downtown and tried to identify facilities where patients could be sent afterward, but the other provider in town was soon at capacity, leaving many heading to nearby cities and states. Meanwhile, the people of Joplin needed medical care. Once patients and staff were evacuated, Farnen and his team got to work removing contents like patient medical records, pharmaceuticals, and IT servers and ensuring that no one could enter the hospital. While the 1960s structural frame was still standing, most of the windows had been blown out, the roof was torn off, and interior walls had failed. “When we saw the hospital and how much damage was done to the outside, and the inside was just as bad as the outside, it was just unbelievable.” Louis), who was on the scene following the storm to assess damage to the 800,000-square-foot, 360-bed hospital and secure the site. So we got down there and tried to figure out where we even start with this,” says John Farnen, Mercy’s executive director of strategic projects (St. “This isn’t something you normally plan for. John’s Mercy Regional Medical Center-there wasn’t a whole lot of time to think about rebuilding. In the hours and days immediately following the May 22, 2011, EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo.-including the former St.
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