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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, February 13, 2009 8:50 PM CST
Hospital plans to build $8 million clinic this year

By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com

MATTOON — Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center officials announced plans Friday for a new clinic building to relieve overcrowding in several areas of the hospital.

Construction on an estimated $8 million medical office building is expected to begin this spring and take 15 to 18 months, an announcement from SBLHC said.

“We have significant issues in a number of our clinics,” said Dennis Pluard, the hospital’s vice president of operations. “It’s a good problem, but we’re out of space. We have no place for these clinics to move to.”

The new building will be located in what’s now an open area between SBLHC’s main building and Illinois Route 16. The hospital announcement also said a drive will be extended east to Loxa Road to provide better access to the hospital grounds, and that work should begin later this month.

Pluard said the pediatric clinic currently on the second floor of the hospital’s office pavilion doesn’t have enough examination rooms and patients frequently wait in the hall outside the clinic for their appointments. There are “very similar problems” with the behavioral medicine clinic and with the family practice clinic, now located in the SBLHC Professional Plaza, he said.

Those clinics will relocate to the new building, as will the hospital’s occupational health program, which also has space needs, Pluard also said.

“We felt putting up a new building was the best answer,” he said.

The announcement said the SBLHC employee assistance program and its Sleep Disorders Center and Healthy Communities program will also move into the planned building.

There’s been no decision on what to do with the current locations of the clinics that will move, Pluard said. Officials said the project will mean there will be space for future expansion based on changing demands for services.

Pluard said the new building and its location should also help with congestion and parking near the main hospital building because the project will move “a lot of traffic away from the hospital.”

With the current state of the economy, SBLHC is able to take on the project because it began planning for it more than a year ago, before the downturn, Pluard also said. The hospital invested and designated money for the project, he said.

SBLHC’s last expansion took place about eight years ago when a medical offices building was constructed at the west end of the hospital’s grounds.

Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.

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Mattoon Resident wrote on Feb 14, 2009 6:13 PM:

" I like the expanded health care for the county, but we are missing benefits of expanded health care that Carle could also provide. SBLH does not want competition so the cost of health care is what ever they want to set the price at. Get ready Coles County prices are going up. "

cd wrote on Feb 14, 2009 9:07 PM:

" We don't need a clinic. SBLHC says so, so why are we getting one now?

Could it be that the Non-Profit SBLHC has to spend $8M to maintain that status?

"With the current state of the economy, SBLHC is able to take on the project because it began planning for it more than a year ago, before the downturn, Pluard also said. The hospital invested and designated money for the project, he said."

So that's the reason SBLHC had Carle Clinic blocked from establishing a clinic here in Coles County. It wasn't that a Coles Carle Clinic would cut into SBLHC, but into SBLHC's Clinic that was quietly being planned.

If SBLHC has $8M to spend on a building, then they are charging way too much for services, because we know they aren't going to pay their non-management staff one nickel more than they have to. "

medic57 wrote on Feb 15, 2009 9:09 PM:

" If you think SBLHC is high priced for care, try going to Carle for care, it's about twice as much.

This from Carle's website

Carle Foundation Hospital is:

A 305-bed regional care hospital located in Urbana, Illinois
The primary teaching hospital for the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign
Accredited by the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

A not-for-profit hospital

HHMMM, just like Sarah Bush "

joe hardy wrote on Feb 16, 2009 1:28 PM:

" "Could it be that the Non-Profit SBLHC has to spend $8M to maintain that status?"

Could it be you have no idea what "non-profit status" means? I think so. "

medic57 wrote on Feb 16, 2009 3:34 PM:

" Don't mistake Carle for do gooders, when I lived in Olney, I was on Carles HMO, I had to drive to Robinson to see the doctor, about 25 to 30 miles. "

medic57 wrote on Feb 16, 2009 3:36 PM:

" My son was also sick and Carle couldn't find out why, it was like pulling teeth to get Carles to let us go to Childrens in St. Louis, Once there, we found out almost immediately what was wrong. "

CrazyLady wrote on Feb 16, 2009 5:10 PM:

" Why build new? There is a perfectly good clinic building to the east of the hospital...Why not use or renovate what they already have and put the rest into Medical research or new equipment? "

Cognitus wrote on Feb 16, 2009 5:17 PM:

" medic57 is a sorehead;"" Don't mistake Carle for do gooders, when I lived in Olney, I was on Carles HMO, I had to drive to Robinson to see the doctor, about 25 to 30 miles. "
Health Alliance is not "Carle's HMO";
true Carle started it as Carle Care,
but Health Alliance now includes physicians -- even right here in town --who are not Carle physicians. Maybe you never asked; maybe you're out of date.

I'm not going to quarrel with you re your experience: " My son was also sick and Carle couldn't find out why, it was like pulling teeth to get Carles to let us go to Childrens in St. Louis, Once there, we found out almost immediately what was wrong. "
HOWEVER, when I had a difficult case a couple of years ago, Carle took ONE LOOK and sent me to an out-of-town super-specialist. "

Interested Observer wrote on Feb 16, 2009 6:12 PM:

" The SBLHC bashers are out in force, I see. It's obvious that they don't understand the difference between a clinic and a surgical center, but why let facts get in the way of a good slam, eh? "

medic57 wrote on Feb 17, 2009 2:23 AM:

" Fact is, Sarah Bush is a fine Hospital, unfortunately, my health has put me there a few times. Living on Dewitt as I do, I see many ambulances go by my house every week, some, from towns closer to Decatur than Mattoon, That says volumes. "

Harry Potter wrote on Feb 17, 2009 3:31 PM:

" Fact is, Sarah Bush is a fine Hospital.....

No medic, that's an opinion, not a fact. Judging by some of the posts on here (whenever a topic pertaining about SBLHC comes up anyway) it appears that a lot of folks don't share your opinion. "

Cognitus wrote on Feb 17, 2009 3:46 PM:

" IO:"" The SBLHC bashers are out in force, I see. It's obvious that they don't understand the difference between a clinic and a surgical center, but why let facts get in the way of a good slam, eh? "

So you mean if a child is found to have
a problem that requires surgery, it will not be done at the clinic?????? Will be
ambulanced to Carle??? "

Cognitus wrote on Feb 17, 2009 3:56 PM:

" medic57:" If you think SBLHC is high priced for care, try going to Carle for care, it's about twice as much.

This from Carle's website

And pray tell WHERE on Carle's website
do I find this information.

If true, maybe it's true that Carle provides a higher level of care. How often, particularly in the case of bad accidents, do we learn that the victim was taken to SB and immediately loaded into an ambulance to Carle?????
I remember a few years ago the wife of a local MD just raised HEMM because Mayor Cougill received medical treatment at Carle. As I recall, he was first taken to SB and THEY forwarded him to Carle. At any rate the MD wife served us some Crow for breakfast in the T-Courier Ltrs to the Editor. "

oldschool wrote on Feb 17, 2009 6:38 PM:

" We are so blessed in having a hospital like SBLHC in our county, and doubly blessed that it is run and administered locally. Amagine if the powers to be were pulling the strings in it's operation from New York or California.......it could happen down the road,..and we should all get on bended knee and thank God that our hospital is "local" in all aspects of it's operation.

Therefore if the local administration makes a decision like the one discussed here today we should support them, along with the many local employees that make it their career in keeping us well. All you SBLHC haters....be very careful of what you wish for, or one day you'll be thinking of these days as the good ol days. But then again some people are never happy....very sad. "

Interested Observer wrote on Feb 17, 2009 6:40 PM:

" Cognitus-- No, that's not what I mean. The proposed clinic is for primary care and some specialty clinics, like the Sleep Disorders program. Surgery is a level above primary care and, if required, it would be done at either Sarah Bush or some other hospital. "

medic57 wrote on Feb 17, 2009 7:13 PM:

" How often, particularly in the case of bad accidents, do we learn that the victim was taken to SB and immediately loaded into an ambulance to Carle?????

Cognitus

I'll bet you don't know, that in certain injuries and circumstances, SB is required by state law to transfer patients to Carle, they have no choice in the matter. It's because they are a level 1 trama center, the only one within over a hundred miles. "

oldschool wrote on Feb 17, 2009 8:07 PM:

" Medic57 - great point about the difference in the Level I trauma center status. What most people don't take into consideration is that the highest rate of transfers are due to auto accidents which often require a Level I trauma center. What is published most often in the paper????...Auto Accidents! The conclusion the general public draws is that SBL transfers most patients that arrive in the ER. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There are countless stories of lives being saved in the more than 35,000 cases that pass through the ER each year. I feel very comforted that we have such a fine health care facility in our community. "

gringa wrote on Feb 17, 2009 10:22 PM:

" oldschool: "I feel very comforted that we have such a fine health care facility in our community."

Good for you. You're one in a million. LOL "

oldschool wrote on Feb 18, 2009 11:43 AM:

" Dear "gringa" I suppose you have some facts to back up your 999,999.00 dissatisfied residents of the area? Gosh...we have that many people in the area? How many counties are you including regarding you statement?

Hey I'm just playing with you "gringa" I realize that with a lot of people like you nothing can bring happiness to your poor pathic world. Therefore bashing things you know nothing about brings some sort of purpose to your lifes.

I've read your other posts from other subjects and I feel for you and your obvious pain you carry in life....so sorry. Heres a thought....get a job or volunteer to help folks that are less furtunate. Perhaps there is still hope for you to gain some purpose in life. Till then, I guess you'll keep spewing your bilge of a unhappy life for all to read, with no knowledge at all on what you speak. "

CLICK TO ENLARGE

An architect's drawing of the $8 million Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center facility that will be built between the main hospital building and Illinois Route 16.