Employees get first look at new St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City

As a $200 million construction project nears its completion date, the new St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City opened its door to its employees and their families on Saturday.

Event leaders estimate at least 500 people got the first look at the inside of the 373,000 square-foot building since construction broke ground in 2012. Now, two years later, ABC 17 toured the new facility that is set to finish two months ahead of schedule.

The new location on 2505 Mission Drive will replace the former campus at 100 St. Mary’s Plaza in Jefferson City that has served the area for more than 100 years.

“Well, if anyone’s been to the old St. Mary’s, it’s done a really great job over the last 100 years, but we needed some new space,” said Tony Houston, Chief Operating Officer of St. Mary’s Hospital. “We needed new private rooms, which we will have here. We needed new equipment, larger hallways and taller ceilings. All of those things that will help us deliver health care not only today, but we hope, for the next 100 years.”

Houston said 80 percent of all the equipment in the hospital is brand new. That means, while the facility is almost complete physically, there is still work to be done internally.

“There will not be a dull moment over the next two months,” said Emily Doerhoff, a hospital employee in charge of the transition between buildings. “We will be spending a lot of time getting everyone use to this new building, and we’ll run them through day-in-the-life situations so that they feel comfortable and feel at home in this building.”

Houston said the new hospital did not add any new jobs, but did add them within the local community.

“Seventy-five percent of all the labor that was used on the project was local,” Houston said. “So, about 750,000 human hours of labor were spent by folks from Mid-Missouri.”

For the employees, they appreciate the change of venue and everything it brings, including six floors with 178 private rooms. The hospital houses a 28-room emergency department, 12 intensive care rooms and 14 hotel-inspired rooms for mothers, babies and family members.

“It’s amazing,” Doerhoff said. “More so, not only for our employee safety, but for knowing that every room we go into is exactly the same. We’ve tried to standardize, putting everything in the same place…all of our equipment. So, it is tremendous the impact it will have on patient care, patient safety, as well as our employees and our employee safety.”

Attached to the hospital, a 65,000 square-foot, medical office building will house a large conference and education center and other outpatient services. That construction will continue past the November 16 grand opening, according to Houston.

As for the old St. Mary’s Hospital, officials plans have not been set yet. Houston said they had an agreement with the State of Missouri and Lincoln University, but it was denied through Governor Nixon’s veto of the current budget.

Before opening, the new location will host two public open house events on November 1 and 2. You can sign-up for those events by clicking here.

A nursing job fair will happen on September 10 and 11.