Lawrence Memorial Hospital, at 325 Maine, has been the city's major provider of health care since 1921. The hospital, with about 200 beds and 575 employees, is owned by the city and managed by a board of trustees appointed by the mayor. Critically ill patients, and those requiring procedures not performed at LMH, are typically transferred to hospitals in Kansas City or Topeka.
In July 1999, the LMH board approved a 15-year lease for the former Mt. Oread Surgery Centre, which will be renamed LMH South when it opens in October or November at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive. The property was previously owned by Columbia/HCA Healthcare, which closed its for-profit businesses. The new building will make it easier for patients in west Lawrence and Baldwin to receive services. The 22,000 square-foot building opened four years ago and formerly housed Columbia's diagnostic practice and outpatient surgery center, both of which are now closed. PromptCare, an emergency outpatient clinic that never was affiliated with Columbia, will remain open, but LMH will be its landlord.
LMH plans to offer gastroenterology lab procedures, intravenous infusion therapy and diagnostic (mammography, X-rays and CT scans), pain management and occupational health services at LMH South. Estimates call for 37 doctors and other staff members to work at the building. Same-day surgery procedures won't be offered there because LMH and a group of local surgeons plan to open an ambulatory surgery center at Sixth and Maine. Construction crews already had begun site work on that facility by July 1999.
Columbia's interest in Lawrence has seemingly cooled in the past two years. But prior to that, the national chain announced plans to build a hospital on the 8.5 acres of land west of its former building to compete with LMH, sparking an intense debate within the community over the issue of public versus private health care facilities. Read a recent update on that battle and LMH's expansion plans.
Indigent patients can receive health services at Health Care Access, 1920 Moodie Road. For more information call 841-5760 or visit the clinic on the web.
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