Surgery Center West already accepting patients
By Carly Harrington

Mercy Health Partners has opened a $13 million outpatient surgery center and medical office building on the campus of Baptist Hospital West.

Mercy Surgery Center West, a 21,500-square-foot multispecialty ambulatory facility in the Turkey Creek retail development, began accepting patients on Monday.

The surgery center, on the first floor of the three-story building, has four operating rooms and two endoscopy/procedure rooms. Doctors will perform gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, pain management, plastic surgery, orthopedic and other procedures.

The facility was initially to be a joint partnership with physicians, who would have had a 49 percent ownership stake, but Jeff Potter, senior vice president of planning and development for Mercy, said the surgery center's board decided otherwise.

"As we went through the planning stages and physicians expressed concern about reimbursement, it was decided by the board, led by physicians, to make it an outpatient department of the hospital," Potter said.

Meanwhile, the medical office building is starting to fill up, spokesman Craig Griffith said.

Isis Women's Services has opened on the second floor and Hope Neurology will open by early March. Additional space is still available, he said.

Mercy Health also is moving forward with a $7 million project that includes expanding the emergency department capacity at Baptist Hospital West as well as $4 million to do the same at St. Mary's Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Jefferson City.

Business writer Carly Harrington may be reached at 865-342-6317.
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