KU Med will build $72M hospital

[trailerkid]

Hospitals seem to just keep the money rolling in...big expansion for KU Med

KU Med plans $72M expansion
By Terry Rombeck, Journal-World

Friday, July 11, 2003

Kansas City, Kan. — Increasing patient volumes will lead KU Med to build a $72 million building to treat heart and lung patients and to house its emergency department.


Officials announced the 153,000-square-foot building Thursday, just three days after a new 80,000-square-foot sixth-floor addition officially opened. Both will help KU Med handle patient numbers that have climbed 40 percent in the past four years.

"This was the vision from the beginning," said Irene Cumming, the hospital's president and CEO. "We're anticipating more growth. We need space."

Cumming said the number of patient discharges at KU Med increased more than 9 percent to about 19,000 during the last fiscal year. She said the growth in KU's cardiology program was a significant portion of that increase. Heart catheter procedures are up about 45 percent from last year, and heart surgeries are up 44 percent.

"We've worked hard on building that program," she said. "It's resulting in tremendous growth."

The new building, to be situated northeast of the current KU Med building, will have an approximately 25,000-square-foot emergency department on its first floor and will be about 60 percent larger than the current emergency department. Emergency visits have increased about 32 percent in the past two years, officials said.

Tentative plans call for the rest of the building to have 94 beds for intensive care and inpatient and outpatient procedures.


Officials plan to break ground on the facility Nov. 1, with construction complete in three years.

Cumming said the $72 million price tag would be covered with a combination of saved operating revenues, borrowed money and private gifts. She said exact financing hadn't been determined.

KU Med, formerly part of Kansas University, became its own private entity in 1998. It receives no tax money but remains affiliated with the KU schools of medicine, nursing and allied health as a teaching facility.

KU Med has reported strong financial results in recent years. Operating revenues increased to a projected $350 million during the fiscal year ending June 30, up from $320 million in fiscal year 2002.

Between 2001 and 2002, the hospital's profits increased from $3.2 million to $5.1 million. Cumming said profits for the most recent fiscal year had not been determined, though they were expected to increase again.

"We had a good year," she said.

[ShowME]

Good to see. This project will benefit the midtown area's of both KCK and KCMO.

[QueSi2Opie]

Good to see. This project will benefit the midtown area's of both KCK and KCMO.

Rosedale on 39th Street is my old neighborhood...great news with both the hospital expansion and new housing proposed for the area.

[KCN]

Good deal! This just means more workers in an already awesome neighborhood.

[KCPowercat]

does somebody have a summary of what all hospitals are doing what? if you search the project database you can see I really overlook these, only one I have in there is Children's Mercy expansion.....

[trailerkid]

This one slipped through the cracks last month, but it's a big one. They build new hospitals where housing booms are expected to follow and they're betting on K7 in Lenexa. I think Western Lenexa will be So OP's big rival in the next 25 years.

June 18, 2003
Shawnee Mission Med will build hospital in Lenexa
Shawnee Mission Medical Center announced plans Wednesday to build a 400-bed hospital in Lenexa near Kansas Highway 7 and 95th Street.

Shawnee Mission CEO Sam Turner said the medical center plans to close on the purchase of 46 acres for the project in October. The Lenexa City Council approved the project Tuesday.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center spokeswoman Ginger Bliss said that planning for the project won't start until the land purchase has closed, including the project's cost, scope and general contractor.

Turner said the hospital will start off with 80 beds and grow as needed. Building the hospital was necessary, he said, because Shawnee Mission needs to grow with Johnson County.

"We have to expand our number of beds here at the hospital," Turner said. "Frankly, there is only so much expansion we can do on our campus from a physical standpoint. With the growth in our community, it is becoming harder and harder to be convenient for our patients.

"We need to go out where the growth is. If you look at the demographic projections, it looks like there is going to be a huge increase over the next 20 years in those ZIP codes."

Turner said he did not feel comfortable giving a cost projection.

"I could give you a price now," he said. "But with rising costs and inflation, it could be 50 percent more just three years from now."

Current industry standards estimate a cost of $1 million a bed for any new hospital facility being built.

The first phase of construction is expected to start in three to five years and be completed about two years after that, Bliss said.

Turner said the hospital's plan to build a 94-bed critical-care tower on the present campus also is moving ahead.

"We are in the additional planning stages right now," Turner said. "The planning for the design takes roughly six to nine months. We expect approval of that in three months by our board."

Shawnee Mission Medical Center's facility at Interstate 35 and 75th Street in Overland Park opened in 1962 and is the third-largest hospital in the Kansas City area, with more than 19,000 admissions in 2002.



© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

Also...a day after KU's Med made their announcement, Shawnee Mission announced a similar sized proposal. Just counting the three projects (Shawnee Mission Med, KU Med, Lenexa Shawnee Mission Med) it's barreling over $200+ Million on the Kansas side alone

KU Med, Shawnee Mission to build cardiac additions

By PAUL WENSKE and ALAN BAVLEY
The Kansas City Star

Two Kansas City area hospitals said Thursday that they planned to build cardiac-care additions on their campuses that reflect a combined commitment of $142 million.

KU Med said it would spend $72 million to build a 153,000-square-foot hospital addition to consolidate an array of services for heart, lung and vascular patients.

The 94-bed addition will be virtually a hospital in itself and will include an expanded emergency department as well as new operating rooms, said Irene Cumming, KU Med's chief executive officer and president.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center plans a $70-million expansion aimed primarily at providing services to heart patients, Robin Harrold, the hospital's chief operating officer, said Thursday.

The Shawnee Mission addition, still in the early planning stages, will include at least 65 patient beds, four additional operating rooms and an expanded emergency room.

The projects are part of a health-care boom throughout the Kansas City area. Other area hospitals that plan new construction projects include North Kansas City Hospital, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Olathe Medical Center, St. Luke's Health System and HCA Inc.

Hospital officials say the growth is needed, though some critics worry about the area having too many beds.

As the area's population ages, heart care has become a growing part of hospital services, as well as a key revenue producer. Consolidating services makes a hospital stay easier for patients and more convenient for the medical specialities involved in treatment.

KU Med is experiencing its highest patient volumes in at least 50 years -- up 40 percent in the past four years, Cumming said. A big reason for that, she said, is a "surge in the heart program" -- a 44 percent increase in heart surgeries from last year.

Until now, only St. Luke's Hospital has provided a physical plant dedicated solely to heart disease. Its 10-story Mid America Heart Institute houses the largest heart program in the metropolitan area.

KU Med restarted its heart program in 2000 when it recruited a 22-physician cardiology group and a three-physician surgical practice that had been based at St. Luke's Hospital.

KU Med's cardiac program suffered a serious setback when irregularities were revealed eight years ago in its heart-transplant program. The transplant program was halted. Earlier this year, KU Med said it was not planning to restart the transplant program, citing the increase in its other heart-care programs.

St. Luke's Mid America Heart Institute historically has been the largest heart program in the area, performing thousands of procedures each year. St. Luke's is also the only area hospital performing heart transplants. St. Luke's officials declined to comment on the announcements Thursday.

Cardiologist Randy Genton, president of Mid-America Cardiology Association Inc., which practices at KU Med, said KU Med's addition would take advantage of recent innovations such as computerized communications programming throughout the rooms.

There will also be new catheterization and electrophysiology rooms. The new ground-floor emergency department will be 60 percent larger than the current department to accommodate an increase of nearly 32 percent in admissions over the past two years.

The emergency department will also accommodate the increasing demands on KU Med's Level I trauma program. The program has become busier because some other trauma programs in the area have closed.

The project is part of a five-year, $150 million expansion program approved in 2002.

Groundbreaking for KU Med's addition is scheduled for Nov. 1, with a projected completion in 36 months. It will be financed through operating and borrowed funds.

It will be built at the northeast corner of the main hospital building at 3901 Rainbow Blvd., current site of the helipad. The helipad is being relocated to the roof of the hospital.

The addition is being designed by RTKL and will be built by J.E. Dunn Construction Co.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center's addition also anticipates future needs.

"As the population ages, we're seeing more heart disease," Harrold said. "I think all the hospitals are experiencing growth."

The addition will be designed to provide cardiac patients with intensive care as well as less-acute levels of care as they recover, she said.

This will allow patients to stay in a single room throughout their recovery, Harrold said.

Harrold said the hospital hoped to break ground on the addition next summer.

To reach Paul Wenske, consumer affairs reporter, call (816) 234-4454 or send e-mail to pwenske@kcstar.com.

To reach Alan Bavley, medical writer, call (816) 234-4858 or send e-mail to abavley@kcstar.com.

[dangerboy]

St. Luke's: Currently expanding neonatal ICU and planning for almost complete rebuild of it's campus, including new patient tower.

St. Luke's North: Expansion.

St. Luke's Lee's Summit: Just got state approval for new hospital at I-470 and Douglas, plus doctor's buildings.

St. Mary's: Finishing up expansion of ER and outpatient clinics.

NKC Hospital: Adding several new floors in massive expansion.

Truman: expanding the ER and adding biohazard facilities.

Truman-Lakewood: another expansion.

KU Med: just added sixth floor and now adding new building for cardiac and ER

Shawnee Medical Center: Adding new building for cardiac units and planning a new hospital in Lenexa.

MCI and Independence Regional: HCA is rumored to be considering combining these two hospitals into a new building somewhere in Independence.