93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
MU Health is building a state-of-the-art 14,000 square foot primary care facility in Boonville, a town that lost its hospital two years ago.
MU Health Care chief executive officer Jonathan Curtright says the facility will have therapy, imaging, family medicine and other key areas. It’s expected to open this summer.
“It’s going to have an outstanding urgent care center. So if you have a traumatic event, or if you need general medicine, general primary care services, general imaging, lab work, that sort of thing, you’re going to be able to get that care right there close to home,” Curtright says.
Boonville’s Pinnacle Regional Hospital closed in 2020. Mr. Curtright says we have to rethink the health care model in many rural towns.
Meantime, construction continues on the $232-million new Children’s Hospital and tower project in Columbia. MU Health Care says the new hospital will help their system integrate to create one centralized location for all hospital services.
Curtright says the aging building on Keene will serve as a bridge, once the new Children’s Hospital is completed in 2024.
“Over the next, I’d say five to seven years, that facility will be a pop-off valve where we can either if we need, if we’re building a smaller building or building a clinic, or if we grow beyond some of our surgical OR’s, we will use that as a place where we can pop off and provide a great care,” says Curtright.
The building on Keene is located near I-70 and Highway 63, and was built in 1973. Mr. Curtright spoke Saturday on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Round Table.” You can hear his full interview with Fred Parry on our website.
