The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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  • Carpenter Bill Slavens, of Artisan Construction Services Inc., uses a nail gun Monday to install a Sheetrock interior wall on the fifth floor of the Gary & Donna Hall Tower at Freeman Health System’s main campus. The hospital received a $100,000 donation toward completing the expansion. GLOBE | T. ROB BROWN

    Freeman

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November 14, 2011

Freeman gets $100,000 donation from Commerce, foundation

By Josh Letner Globe Staff Writer

JOPLIN, Mo. — The 48,000-square-foot expansion under way at Freeman Hospital West got a financial shot in the arm Monday as representatives of Commerce Bank and the William T. Kemper Foundation presented hospital administrators with a check for $100,000.

After the presentation on the hospital’s partially completed fifth floor, Fred Osborn, president of Commerce Bank’s Joplin Region, said the donation was part of the Kemper Foundation’s ongoing effort in Joplin.

“Kemper was quick to come to the tornado relief efforts, and I see this as an extension of that,” he said. “This is helping this community to rebuild.”

Osborn said the Kemper Foundation and Commerce Bank are familiar with the work Freeman Health System does.

“Freeman is a known entity to us, and they are well-recognized for quality health care delivery systems, and that’s what we want to be associated with,” he said. “We know this project is going to be done well and is going to serve the community for a long time.”

Jeff Carrier, Freeman’s chief nursing officer, said the $15 million expansion will complete construction on the fifth and sixth floors of the Gary and Donna Hall Tower. When completed, the two-phase project will add 58 beds to help address an increased demand for health care in the Joplin community in the wake of the May 22 tornado. Carrier said the expansion will help to streamline Freeman’s operations.

“It improves access,” he said. “It gives us more beds, so it will improve our patient through-put, and it will give the nurses and the physicians more room to take care of their patients in a much better environment.”

Carrier said the fifth floor, which is scheduled for completion by April, will house 29 medical-surgical beds in private “hotel-like” rooms. The sixth floor, slated for completion in September, will have 16 medical-surgical beds and 13 surgical-intensive care unit beds. Carrier said those rooms also will be private. He said the move to private rooms came in response to feedback from patients and families.

“Our patients really demanded it,” he said. “We listened to our patients through surveys and focus groups. They told us that’s what they wanted. It’s really a trend of the future. Lots of organizations are going to more of a hotel look and feel as opposed to the traditional hospital feel with white walls and white floors.”

In addition to added space, Freeman officials say the expansion will result in the creation of nearly 100 jobs. Gary Duncan, president of Freeman, said the health system is already hiring the added staff.

“We’ve hired over 100 RNs since May 23, and we’ll continue in that mode because what we see in staffing these beds is that we’ll have to continue to recruit heavier than we normally would,” he said. “Luckily, we have already recruited about 60 more RNs this year than we normally would recruit, and we still have RNs that graduate at the end of the year, so we’re very optimistic that we will be able to fill many of those spots.”

The William T. Kemper Foundation was founded after the death of William Kemper, Commerce Bank trustee, in 1989. The foundation says it is dedicated to continuing Kemper’s lifelong interest in improving the human condition through the support of education, health and human services, civic and economic development, and the fine and performing arts.

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