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Hospital breaks ground on expansion

Posted July 12, 2007 11:00 pm

JOHN SHARP

What started with "humble" origins inside a small house on Southwest Adams Street 130 years ago will blossom in 2010 into what OSF Saint Francis Medical Center officials claim will be one of the premiere facilities for pediatric care in the Midwest.

The $234 million Milestone Project will add an eight-story, 440,000-square-foot building to a hospital complex that is much more than 1 million square feet, further enhancing the mission of the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis to serve people with "the greatest love and care."

"This is simply the largest undertaking we've ever done at OSF," Sister Judith Ann Duvall, chairwoman of OSF Healthcare System, said Thursday during a ceremony to officially begin construction on the largest private building project in Peoria's history. "It's been made for the right reasons … so we can be here to help the people who need it most."

Thirty-three dignitaries, including the sisters, local politicians, hospital physicians, patients and administrators, picked up gold shovels outside the future home of the Milestone Project and ceremoniously tossed dirt to officially start what will be a three-year project.

"We really believe this will take health care in Peoria to a whole new level," hospital CEO Keith Steffen said, who, along with other dignitaries, praised the sisters for the hospital's founding and dedication to helping it evolve.

The project, which will be paid for primarily through hospital debt, is a modernization and expansion of the medical center and the Children's Hospital of Illinois.

Three floors of the new building will be soley dedicated to the Children's Hospital, with one floor serving adult cardiac patients. The other four floors will contain services for both adults and children.

Derrick Brown, 13, of Peoria, a longtime Children's Hospital patient, said he looks forward to coming to a much larger facility.

"It's going to be great," said Brown, who has been treated for sickle cell anemia for years and who will be a freshman at Richwoods High School this year.

The St. Jude Midwest Affiliate will also move to the new building. The affiliate's wing will be named in honor of former Peoria Mayor Jim Maloof.

Maloof, who still is recovering from the effects of an automobile crash last year, attended the ceremony and praised it as something other communities simply cannot offer.

Though planning for the Milestone Project began about two years ago, Maloof said having a strong St. Jude affiliate was something considered during a June 1966 visit by Danny Thomas, founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

"He said, 'someday we should have an affiliate,'" Maloof said. "Little did we dream it would be this facility."

Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Co., a specialist in health-care construction, is the project manager for the Milestone Project. Steffen said the project will attract 600 to 650 construction-related jobs to Peoria for the next three years.

In addition, once the facility is completed, between 250 to 300 new positions will be added at St. Francis, Steffen said. St. Francis already is the largest hospital in downstate Illinois, with approximately 5,200 employees, and is the only Leve 1 trauma center in the area.

A private fundraising campaign is expected to begin soon, but there is no timetable or goal set for raising money to help offset hospital debt. Already, the hospital has announced a $5 million donation from Jerry and Helen Stephens and a $500,000 gift from Lynn and Susan McPheeters.

Activities on the hospital campus over the past year have prepared the area for the new building. Those included construction of a new parking deck, a new helipad for LifeFlight and the demolition of a 900-vehicle parking deck.

John Sharp can be reached at 686-3234 or jsharp@pjstar.com.

Milestone Project

Groundbreaking for the $234 million, eight-story expansion of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center was Thursday. Completion of the 440,000-square-foot building will be in summer 2010.

When the construction is finished, the Children's Hospital of Illinois will be housed in the building. A floor-by-floor list of what will be in the new building as well as a brief description of the additions follows:

Floors

8: Helipad

7: Mechanical

6: Pediatric Inpatient Unit

5: Adult Cardiac Inpatient Unit

4: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

3: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

2: Interventional/Cardiac Catheterization Labs

1: Lobby/Diagnostic Services

G: Surgery

LL: Emergency Department

Children's Hospital of Illinois

u 13 new Neonatal Intensive Care beds

u 9 new Pediatric Intensive Care beds

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center

u New 50-bed Emergency Department

u 32 adult cardiac rooms

u Consolidated cardiac care services

Source: OSF Saint Francis Medical Center

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