OZH Opens New Medical Office Building

Community members filled the front lobby of the new Medical Office Building at Ozarks Healthcare on February 28 for its grand opening. The new structure adds roughly 100,000 square feet to the facility and brings together nearly twenty specialty clinics and departments. Ozarks Healthcare president and CEO, Tom Keller, told the crowd that the expansion focuses on keeping care closer to home, adding features and services that were not previously available at the local level. 

Keller shared with Howell County News that the expansion will also serve to improve the level of care patients receive. The offices of many physicians, which have been located in buildings outside of the hospital, will now be located on campus. Bringing the physicians’ offices to the campus allows them to be closer to patients, increasing visits from physicians. Keller added that the closure of Kentucky Avenue, allowing the Medical Office Building to be connected to the Shaw Medical Building, eliminates the need for an ambulance to transport patients across the street. These features of the expansion, along with other patient services being brought together under one roof, all work toward the goal of the new Medical Office Building, an expanded focus on healthcare. 

The roughly $70 million expansion project, which includes the new Women’s Health Center, also adds a new restaurant, Grill 59, commemorating the opening of West Plains Memorial Hospital in 1959. Additional new features include a Starbucks coffee shop, gift shop, chapel, imaging and lab services, a retail pharmacy, and patient financial services. The pharmacy is scheduled to open in late spring. Additional medical services will be available in the coming months on the second and third floors of the facility. 

An estimated 150 new jobs will accompany the expanded services at Ozarks Healthcare. Regarding, overall staffing challenges, as faced by medical facilities across the country, Keller told Howell County News that they have had challenges with staffing, but quickly added, “We are fine, and we will continue to be fine.” Keller said that most staffing challenges stem from medical professionals responding to Covid-19 needs in other parts of the country, and that personnel needs are always a top priority and are quickly addressed, in order to provide quality care. 

The grand opening concluded with a ceremonial ribbon cutting with the West Plains Area Chamber of Commerce and self-guided tours of the new building.